A powerful earthquake has struck in waters near an eastern Indonesian island, triggering a tsunami warning that sent residents running for higher ground.
The Indonesian meteorology agency said Thursday's 7.2 magnitude quake occurred at a depth of about 10km near the Talaud islands north of Sulawesi.
There were no reports of deaths but more than a dozen people were injured and many buildings were damaged in the area which lies in a sparsely-populated agricultural belt close to the Philippines.
Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Indonesian health ministry's crisis centre, said 17 people were wounded, one seriously, while 32 houses were "lightly damaged".
A church spire and a corridor in the main hospital also collapsed, forcing some of the injured to be treated at a community health centre.
The US Geographical Survey, which estimated the quake to be at magnitude 7, said the epicentre was in the Talaud islands, 323.5 km south-southeast of General Santos, on the Philippine island of Mindanao.
There were no reports of damage or casualties in the Philippines.
The Indonesian archipelago suffers frequent earthquakes, lying in an area of intense seismic activity where several tectonic plates collide.
Indonesian authorities lifted the tsunami warning later on Thursday.
PHOTO CAPTION
A quake reading on a seismograph.
Al-Jazeera