Jakarta (ANTARA) - Head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Dwikorita Karnawati has called on people not to panic and stay away from the coastal areas following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake which hit Banten Friday. "According to the standard operation procedure, the tsunami early warning is not ended until two hours after the earthquake, or around 21.35 local time," Dwikorita said at a press conference at the BMKG office here, Friday night.

Several areas were on standby status, namely, Banten in the southern part of Pandeglang and Panaitan Island, as well as Western Lampung and the southern coast, she noted.

"The standby status means the possible tsunami could be three meters high at the most," Dwikorita said.

Meanwhile, a number of areas were set on alert, including northern Pandeglang, Lebak, Tabuan Island, Sukabumi, most areas of Lampung and Bengkulu.

"Alert status means the possibility of a maximum tsunami height of half a meter," Dwikorita said.

The earthquake hit on Friday, August 2, 2019, at 19:03:21 local time. BMKG recorded the epicenter at coordinates 104.58° east and 7.54° south, with a magnitude of M7.4 at a depth of 10 kilometers, located 137 km southwest of Sumur, Banten.

The earthquake shook with the intensity of III-IV MMI in Pandeglang and southern coastal areas of Lampung, II-III MMI in Jakarta, Bandung (West Java), Depok and Yogyakarta. (INE)

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Translator: Fauzi/Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Azizah Fitriyanti
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