JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP)—A severe 7.4-magnitude offshore quake struck in eastern Indonesia on Thursday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, triggering a tsunami warning and up to 30-centimetre-high waves.

The quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometres in the Molucca Sea between the Sulawesi and Maluku island groups in the early morning, the USGS said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) said hazardous tsunami waves were possible within 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) of the epicentre along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Waves of 30 centimetres were recorded within 30 minutes of the quake in North Maluku province north of the island of Ternate, Indonesia’s BMKG geological agency said in a statement.

Twenty-centimetre waves were logged in Bitung in northeastern Sulawesi.

Ternate resident Budi Nurgianto, 42, said he was inside his house when the tremor struck, sending people panicking outside.

“The quake was felt strongly. I heard it first from the walls of the house that shook,” he said.

“When I went outside, there were many people outside. They were panicked. The quake was felt (for) quite long, more than a minute.

“I even saw some people leaving their house without having finished their shower.”

An AFP journalist in Manado on Sulawesi, about 300 kilometres west of Ternate by sea, said the shaking woke him and others in the city of around 450,000 people.

“I immediately woke up and left my house. People (were) immediately scrambling outside. There is a school and the pupils rushed outside,” he said.

The shaking persisted for “quite long” but he did not witness “significant damage”, he added.

The PTWC said tsunami waves “reaching 0.3 to 1 meters above the tide level” were possible for some coasts of Indonesia.

Smaller waves could also reach Guam, Japan, Malaysia, Palau, the Philippines and Taiwan.

“Government agencies responsible for threatened coastal areas should take action to inform and instruct any coastal populations at risk,” the PTWC said in a statement.

“Persons located in threatened coastal areas should stay alert for information and follow instructions from national and local authorities.”

Indonesia and neighbouring countries experience frequent earthquakes due to its location in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

In 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.