A powerful earthquake struck an area southeast of the Indonesian city of Palu and nearest to the town of Poso on the island of Sulawesi on Monday, prompting people to flee from their homes though there was no tsunami warning issued, officials said. Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said in a statement the quake lasted around 20 seconds and caused panic and people to rush out of their houses. Darma Lebang, an official at Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said there were no reports of casualties but according to security personnel based in Poso some older buildings in the town had been damaged.



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