An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck off the coast of Timor-Leste, or East Timor, a Southeast Asian nation on Friday, although there were no immediate reports of damage.
The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) said that the earthquake "may be capable of generating a tsunami affecting the Indian Ocean region". However, the Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the quake did not trigger a tsunami threat warning.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck at a depth of 51.4 kilometres (32 miles) off the eastern tip of Timor Island, which is split between East Timor and Indonesia.
East Timor and Indonesia sit on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
In February, a 6.2-magnitude quake killed a dozen people when it struck Indonesia's North Sumatra.
In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake hit the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.
East Timor has a population of 1.3 million and is Southeast Asia's youngest country, recently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia.
The mostly rural country's economy has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the World Bank saying 42% of the population live below the poverty line.
(With AFP inputs)
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