Indonesia rocked by second earthquake

A SECOND earthquake hit Indonesia last night, just hours after US President Barack Obama arrived for a brief visit as part of his nine-day tour of Asia.

The magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit at 7:39pm local time.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 69kms and about 193kms south-south-east of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital located on the northwestern coast of Java, according to the United States Geological Survey.

Earlier, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit western Indonesia.

That quake struck at a depth of 45km, around 167 kms southwest of Padang, in Indonesia’s eastern region of Kepulauan Mentawai at 6:16pm local time. The area is some 600 miles northwest of Jakarta.

Both quakes occurred shortly after  Mr Obama arrived in the Indonesian capital.

The US president landed aboard Air Force One at 4:20pm local time as he continued his Asian tour ahead of this week’s G-20 summit in Seoul.

It comes as Mr Obama may be forced to leave Indonesia ahead of schedule due to ash clouds caused by multiple recent eruptions of the island chain’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi.