India, Aug. 15 -- A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck eastern Indonesia early Saturday, prompting immediate tsunami warnings across the region as authorities scrambled to assess the scale of the damage.

The epicentre of the powerful and relatively shallow earthquake was located off the northern coast of Indonesia's Flores Island, about 400 kilometres southeast of the city of Makassar, according to The Weather Network.

The US Geological Survey recorded the quake at 21:58 UTC on Saturday, roughly 68 kilometres north-northwest of the town of Ende, at a depth of 10 kilometres, while Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, known as BMKG, separately confirmed the magnitude 7.7 reading and warned of tsunami potential...