Dozens Injured, One Dead as Quake Hits Indonesia's Aceh

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake which hit the Indonesian province of Aceh on Tuesday killed at least one person, injured dozens and destroyed buildings, sparking panic in a region devastated by the quake-triggered tsunami of 2004.

The quake struck inland at 07:37 GMT at a depth of just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the mountainous Bener Meriah district in the heart of Aceh, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Houses collapsed in the district, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

"A child died when a wall collapsed," Ema Suryani, a doctor at a health clinic in Lampahan city, told Agance France Presse.

"We have received around 50 people with injuries suffered when the walls of their houses collapsed," added the doctor.

"The injuries vary from open wounds to broken bones."

Injured people had been transported from several affected villages in two trucks, she said.

People ran outside in panic in Banda Aceh as the quake shook houses for around one minute, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, is regularly hit by quakes. In 2004 a massive tremor sparked a tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province and tens of thousands more in countries around the Indian Ocean.

In April last year an 8.6-magnitude quake struck 431 kilometers off Banda Aceh, prompting an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert.

Five people died and seven were injured in Aceh in the quake and following aftershocks.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.