2nd LD: Powerful quake strikes off C. Indonesia, tsunami alert issued

A strong earthquake jolted North Sulawesi province of central Indonesia early on Saturday and a tsunami warning has been issued, officials said.

Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency has revised the magnitude of the quake from 7.1 to 6.8, said Wahyu Kurniawan, an official of the agency.

The quake struck at 03:23 a.m. Jakarta time with the epicenter 246 km northwest of Sangihe Island and the depth at 48 km, Kurniawan told Xinhua via telephone.

"A tsunami warning has been in place as the quake has a potential for tsunami," said the official.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency, said no initial report of damage and casualty has so far been reached in the province of North Sulawesi.

"The tsunami monitoring and alert are continuously undertaken," he told Xinhua via telephone.

Indonesia is prone to earthquake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone dubbed the Pacific Ring of Fire. Enditem