Wednesday March 28 4:03 AM ET Indonesian Volcano Shows Activity

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's Mount Lokon volcano belched gas and ash high into the air while a magnitude-5.4 undersea earthquake rattled Sumatra island on Wednesday, geological officials said.

The two events were not related, they said. No injuries were reported.

The volcano in Minahasa district, North Sulawesi island, has been declared off-limits to visitors since it first showed signs of activity on Monday, said volcanologist Ajceh Purbawinata.

The 5,180-foot-high peak, about 1,440 miles northeast of Jakarta, last erupted in 1991, killing a Swiss tourist and causing extensive damage to surrounding villages.

Lying astride the ``Ring of Fire'' - a series of volcanoes and fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia - Indonesia has 500 volcanoes, more than any other nation. At least 129 are considered active.

The earthquake hit Bengkulu town, on the southwest coast of Sumatra, but caused no casualties, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The quake hit at 5:35 a.m. local time and was centered 46 miles west of Bengkulu in the Indian Ocean, the agency said in a statement.

Last June, a 7.9 quake killed at least 100 people and wrecked hundreds of buildings and homes in Bengkulu, about 360 miles northwest of Jakarta. Since then, near-weekly earthquakes have shaken the town

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2001