Quake tsunami warning withdrawn
POSTED: 11:18 a.m. EDT, August 29, 2006
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JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) -- An undersea earthquake struck near the Moluccas islands on Tuesday but Indonesian officials said it was of moderate strength and there was no risk of a tsunami.
The state meteorological agency downgraded its initial estimate of the quake's magnitude and withdrew a tsunami warning.
"The tsunami warning has been canceled. The epicenter of the quake was 33 km in the sea with a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale," Subagio, an official at the agency, said.
Earlier, the agency had pegged the magnitude at 6.4.
The quake was centered southwest of Tual island under the Banda Sea, due east of East Timor and due north of Darwin in northern Australia, the agency said.
