East Timor was shaken on Wednesday by a powerful earthquake, which according to the Indonesian monitoring agency could trigger a tsunami.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.2 on the Richter scale and hit at 10 km under the sea.

It struck at 6:32 pm AEDT and had its center about 300 km northeast of the East Timor capital, Dili. The agency said that it had its epicenter at 23 km under the floor of the Banda Sea.

Indonesia's Meteorological and Geophysics agency said that the force of the earthquake might trigger a tsunami.

The statement released by the agency said: “There is a tsunami potential.”

Suharjono, from the geophysics headquarters said: "The quake has tsunami potential because it was shallow, at 23 kilometres. The area that should be on alert is around Timor,'' the Daily Telegraph reports.

Residents in Dili didn’t feel the quake and there weren’t any reports of damage or injuries.

East Timor used to be a Portuguese colony that gained its independence in 1999 becoming the youngest country in Asia.

It is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is a series of fault lines and volcanoes.

Indonesia’s Sumatra was hit by a powerful earthquake in December 2004. The earthquake triggered a tsunami killing almost 230,000 people, including 168,000 people from the Aceh province situated in northern Sumatra.