1st LD: Powerful earthquake jolts eastern Indonesia, no tsunami alert issued

JAKARTA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's eastern province of North Maluku on Friday morning, but did not have the potential to trigger a tsunami, the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said.

The earthquake occurred at 03:02 a.m. local time Friday (2002 GMT Thursday) with its epicenter located 133 km northwest of Morotai Island district and a depth of 112 km under the seabed, the agency said.

The tremors of the earthquake did not potentially trigger a tsunami, it added.