A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Indonesia on Sept. 2, 2009, killing dozens and destroying thousands of homes in the hills of West Java.

Government agencies said that the death toll was likely to rise from an initial figure of 57 but importantly a tsunami had not been triggered, avoiding a repeat of the 2004 tsunami that killed thousands around the Indian Ocean.

The earthquake also damaged at least 24,000 homes on West Java.

Indonesia's 17,000 islands are scattered along a belt of volcanic and seismic activity known as the Pacific "ring of fire", one of the most quake-prone places on earth.

More than 170,000 Indonesians were killed or listed as missing after a 9.15 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra island triggered a tsunami in December 2004. A total of 230,000 people died in Indian Ocean countries.

Indonesia's seismology agency put the magnitude of the earthquake in September 2009 at 7.3 with the epicentre 142 km (88 miles) southwest of Tasikmalaya, in West Java.