Two strong earthquakes shook the southwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The quakes had magnitudes of 6.9 and 6.8 with hypocenters at depths of 39 and 10 km. The epicentres were 105 km and 132 km west of Bengkulu. More than 300,000 people live in the city. The quakes occurred in the early morning hours: the first quake manifested at 05.23 and the second one at 05.29. There are no reports of major damage and no tsunami alarm was given.
In relative proximity to the epicentres are numerous volcanoes, of which Kerinici and Anak Krakatau are currently the most active. Sinabung is located in northern Sumatra and a good 800 km away. However, the north of Sumatra was not spared by earthquakes either. Several earthquakes occurred in the area of 3. But these earthquakes might have been too weak to affect the Sinabung.