Monday, January 24 2005 10:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jakarta: A strong earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi early today (Jan 24, 2005) causing some damage to buildings, officials said.

The quake struck at 03:10 hrs (00:40 IST) under land roughly 16 kms south of the town of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, the meteorological and geophysics agency said.

Agency official Sutiono said that eight shops were damaged but there were no reports of fatalities or serious casualties.

He said at least 24 aftershocks were recorded, with magnitudes ranging between 3.0 and 4.0 on the Richter scale.

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent in Indonesia, which is atop the collision points of several continental plates.

A 9.0-strong quake on December 26 off the northern tip of the country produced tsunamis that struck the shorelines of several countries in the Indian Ocean.

The quake and giant waves killed close to 1,74,000 people in the Indonesian Island of Sumatra from more than 2,27,000 fatalities across the region.