Strong Indonesia earthquake damages buildings, hurts some

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This handout photo taken and released on May 29, 2017 by the Indonesian National Board of Disaster Management shows damaged buildings in Poso after a shallow, 6.6-magnitude earthquake hit inland on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesis. (AFP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia: A strong, shallow earthquake rocked Indonesia鈥檚 central Sulawesi province Monday evening, injuring at least three people and damaging some buildings and houses.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.8 quake was centered in a thinly populated area 79 kilometers (49 miles) southeast of the provincial capital, Palu, at a depth of 9.1 kilometers (6 miles).
The National Disaster Management Agency said buildings were damaged in Poso, a city to the southeast of the epicenter, and a number of houses and churches were damaged in nearby villages.
At least three villagers were hospitalized for head wounds, it said.
The agency posted photos of damage in Poso on Twitter. One showed a collapsed building and another showed a convenience store with goods strewn on its floor but otherwise intact.
Indonesia鈥檚 Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recorded 14 aftershocks of up to magnitude-5.2, also at a shallow depth. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage on the Earth鈥檚 surface.
It said the land-based quake didn鈥檛 have any potential to cause a tsunami.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location along the Pacific 鈥淩ing of Fire.鈥� A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.