The warning was lifted within the hour, but local officials asked people in the affected area to remain on the alert as a number of moderate aftershocks hit the area.
The earlier quake killed at least one person and injured 10 other, local authorities said.
A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of kilometres southwest of Sulawesi.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, a big earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 220,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 168,000 in Indonesia.-VNA
