A quake measuring 6.8 Richter scale jolted Indonesia`s resort island of Bali on Thursday, injuring at least 63 people, nine of them seriously, officials said, according to Xinhua.
The quake was also felt in nearby provinces of East Java and west Nusa Tenggara, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, Apprillianto, told Xinhua.
The quake jolted at 10:16 a.m. (0316 GMT) with the epicenter at 143 km southwest of Nusadua, Bali, and at a depth of 10 km under sea bed, the official said. "So far the number of injured people has increased to 63, nine of whom are receiving intensive medical treatment at the emergency unit at hospital," an official at Bali Disaster Management and Mitigation Agency, Eka Purwata, told Xinhua over phone.
But no death has been reported so far, he added.
The quake also damaged scores of school buildings, office buildings, shopping centers and residential houses, he said.
Most of the wounded persons have been rushed to the nearby hospitals, such as Sanglah General Hospital, said Purwata.
"Most of those being treated at the emergency unit suffer from broken bones and head wounds," Ni Wayan Suki, press officer at the hospital told Xinhua over phone from the hospital.
Nevertheless, in the other hardest-hit areas of Mataram in West Nusa Tenggara province, there has been no immediate reports of damage or injury, Lili Widyanti, the provincial disaster management and mitigation agency official, told Xinhua by phone from the province.
On Wednesday, countries along the Indian Ocean tested the first full-scale tsunami early warning system installed after the massive tsunami in Dec. 2004, which killed more than 230,000 people, Head of Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency Sri Woro B. Harijono told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Indonesia, where 129 active volcanoes are located, is prone to earthquake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called "the Pacific Ring of Fire," where two continental plates stretching from Japan to Western hemisphere meet, which frequently causes seismic and volcanic movements.
