JAKARTA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A tectonic earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale rocked Wamena, Jayawijaya District, Indonesia's Papua Province on Tuesday, but there are no reports of damages or casualties.

    The quake took place at around 12:28 p.m. local time, and its epicenter was traced at 3.85 degrees southern latitude and 139.76 degrees eastern longitude, around 115 km northeast of Wamena at a depth of 33 km below the sea level, Antara news agency quoted head of the Jayapura Meteorological and Geophysics Office Fadli Yusuf as saying here on Tuesday.

    The tremor was felt at between third and fourth level Modified Marcelli Intensity (MMI) in Wamena, second and third MMI in Tanah Merah as well as Jayapura.

    "The local residents panicked when the quake occurred," Kayadu said.

    Some parts of Papua Island have been jolted by a series of tremors lately, including the magnitude 4.6 quake hitting Jayapuraand Sarmi District last Wednesday (May 24), and magnitude 4.8 tremor hitting Paniai District last Friday (May 26).

    Indonesia is in a zone known as the Pacific "ring of fire," which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.

    Among the worst earthquakes which hit the country were respectively the magnitude 8.9 quake which hit Aceh in December 2004 and killed over 168,000 people, and the recent magnitude 5.9 quake which hit Yogyakarta and Central Java last Saturday (May 27) and has killed over 5,000 people. Enditem