Earthquake rocks Indonesia's Aceh province, several dead

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A strong undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's province of Aceh early Wednesday, causing several deaths and buildings to collapse in a district near the epicenter.

 

The US Geological Survey said the shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck at 5:03 a.m. (6:03 a.m. in Manila) was centered about 10 kilometers north of Reuleut, a town in northern Aceh, at a depth of 17.2 kilometers.

 

Indonesia's Climate, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said the quake has no potential to trigger a tsunami.

 

Sulaiman, a local disaster official, told local MetroTV that a woman and her two children were killed in Pidie Jaya, 18 kilometers southwest of the epicenter.

 

He said several mosques in Pidie Jaya collapsed as well as stores, houses and other buildings. Heavy equipment has been deployed for the effort to search for survivors.

 

Residents of the nearby town of Lhokseumawe ran out of their houses in panic during the quake.

 

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

 

In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.