( AP ) - Two strong earthquakes that struck eastern Indonesia overnight killed at least one person and injured 45 other people, a senior health ministry official said Monday. Dozens of buildings were reportedly destroyed or damaged.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 6.4, struck late Sunday just off Sumbawa island. Several hours later, a powerful aftershock hit the same region.
"Everyone panicked, they were running from their houses, some to the hills," said Agung Prasetyo, a local police officer, adding that the ground shook violently for around 30 seconds.
Rustam Pakaya, the top disaster official at Indonesia's Health Ministry, said in a statement that one child had died and 45 other people were injured by the quakes. He gave no more details.
State news agency Antara said dozens of buildings were either destroyed or damaged, while witnesses said electricity was temporarily cut in some places, including a hospital, which was briefly evacuated.
Earlier on Sunday, a third earthquake rattled residents on the west coast of Sumatra island. Scores of people fled from their homes in the region, which has been hit by a series of powerful earthquakes in recent months.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheavals due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake struck off Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, including 160,000 people in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.