25 dead in quake

Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATED 8:41 P.M.

A strong undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's Aceh province early on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people and causing dozens of buildings to collapse.

A frantic rescue effort involving dozens of villagers, soldiers and police was underway in Meureudu, a severely affected town in Pidie Jaya district. Three excavators were trying to remove debris from shop houses where three people were believed buried, said Suyatno, who heads Aceh's search and rescue agency.

District chief Aiyub Abbas said hundreds of people in the district have been injured and more than 40 buildings including mosques, stores and homes were flattened. The district is located 18 kilometres (11 miles) southwest of the epicenter.

Abbas said 25 people have been killed in that district alone. A local health office said eight were young children.

A strong undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia's province of Aceh early Wednesday, causing several deaths and building collapses in districts near the epicentre.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck at 5:03 a.m. was centred about 10 kilometres north of Reuleut, a town in northern Aceh, at a depth of 17.2 kilometres.

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 kilometres southwest of the epicenter. Achmad Taufiq, a health worker at a public health centre in the nearby district of Bireuen, said a teacher at an Islamic building school died after being hit by falling debris.

Sulaiman 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.

Television footage from the town showed partially and completely collapsed buildings and injured people at a makeshift emergency centre.