Quake rocks north Australia

Canberra (Reuter) - An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale - strong enough to destroy cities - rocked Indonesia and northern Australia yesterday, seismologists said.

The earthquake was centred in the Banda Sea, about 620 miles north-east of Indonesia's Flores island, struck by a large earthquake just over a week ago. Earth tremors shook a large section of northern Australia, rocking buildings in the city of Darwin, but there were no reports of damage.

'It was a major earthquake, measured at 7.3 from our stations in Australia and Antarctica,' said a seismologist, Trevor Jones, at the Australian Seismological Centre. 'We have had no reports of damage so far. It was too deep to create a tidal wave out in the Banda Sea,' he added.