Tremors from a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit near the Tanimbar Islands between Indonesia and East Timor are felt by the people of the Northern Territory.

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Australians felt the tremor caused by the big earthquake in Indonesia.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck near the Tanimbar Islands Tuesday morning at 4:47 am (EST) near East Timor.

The shaking can be felt on the majority of the small islands in the Arafura Sea and Banda, as well as locals who live or vacation in the Northern Territory.

It quickly raised fears of a tsunami, but the Met Office said there was no threat.

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Residents in the Top End have been awakened in their beds by shaking which some have described as the “biggest” they have ever felt while living in the Northern Territory.

One wrote: “I haven’t heard or felt like this in years. Shaken for a very long time too.”

Another added, “This was massive! I hope everyone in the north is doing well.”

A third said “(it was) a 30 level experience here in the CBD and not fun”.

Some locals described hearing it, with a “very loud roar” just seconds before the earthquake began to shake their homes.

Others were able to pick up their phones to film the moment the shaking began.

A Twitter user by the name of Aussie Lobster captured a glass of water on his bedside table shaking and the furniture inside the room shaking loudly.

Journalist Annabelle Bowles, who lives in the apartment, told Sunrise that residents of the building ran out into the street in their pajamas with their children.

“I thought at first it was a hurricane… We’ve got hurricanes here, we had Tropical Cyclone Eli a couple of weeks ago,” she said of the sound of the earthquake.

“Wheels are shaking, glass is shaking, people’s bathrooms are splashing. I’ve heard reports of some apartment buildings in town shaking or swaying.”

It is not known if any major damage or injuries were reported.

Indonesia sits in one of the world’s most seismically active regions, sitting on the Ring of Fire, a 40,000-kilometer “belt” along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.

This means that there tends to be more movement of tectonic plates in the area, as 90 percent of earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.

Australian Geologist Seismologist Tanja Begich told Sunrise that there is no forecast of more earthquakes after a magnitude 7 earthquake in Vanuatu the day before.

“A magnitude of five or greater is not uncommon in those areas – 7.6 is very large, in general we record 10 earthquakes a year globally with a magnitude of 7 or higher,” she said.

“I wouldn’t say we expect more or less in these regions. It’s pretty much normal for the region.”

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