( AP ) - A moderate earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra island Sunday, causing hundreds of panicked residents to temporarily leave their homes, authorities and witnesses said.
There were no reports of damage or injuries, witnesses and an official from the Geophysics and Meteorology Agency said. Fauzi, an agency official, said it had not issued a tsunami warning. Fauzi uses only one name.
The quake had a magnitude of 5.4, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It shook the Sumatran towns of Pariaman and Padang at 6:42 a.m. local time.
Ira Rahmani, a resident in Padang, said dozens of her neighbors fled their homes.
"We just stayed outside the house for some time," she said "but then we return home."
The quake's epicenter was 65 miles west-northwest of Padang, Sumatra, and about 30 miles below the surface, according to the USGS.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheavals due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra island and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
In July 2006, another quake-generated tsunami killed around 600 people on Java island.