An earthquake again rocked Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, at about 17:58 local time on Wednesday, causing panic among people in high-rise buildings and shopping malls.

An official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, Hendro, said the tremor measured on three up to four on the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale.

Until now, the epicenter and its measurement on the Richter scale were still unknown, Antara news agency reported.

According to the latest official statistics, 531 people were confirmed dead and more than 270 others remained missing after tsunami struck onto southern coastal areas of West Java and Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces on Monday.

Earlier, the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said an earthquake measuring 6.2 in magnitude, striking the Sunda Straits separating the country's Sumatra island from Java island.

But the tremor appeared to be stronger than the quake which rocked Jakarta on Monday when a magnitude 6.8 quake followed by a tsunami hit southern coastal areas of Java island, Hendro said.

A quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter Scale was also reported to have occurred in West Java on Wednesday with its epicenter in Ujung Kulon, around 150 kilometers west of Jakarta.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2006)

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