Indonesia's Aceh province, flattening houses and causing landslides.
Officials say at least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured
by the quake, which struck the western tip of Sumatra island on
Tuesday.
One report said six children were killed and 14 trapped under debris
when a mosque collapsed in Central Aceh.
Indonesia is located on one ofthe most seismically active regions on earth.
"We have recorded 24 people dead and 249 people injured,"disaster
agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Agence-France Presse (AFP)
news agency.
He added that more than 300 buildings have been damagedin the quake.
Soldiers and police have been deployed in rescue operations,but have
struggled to access some areas where roads were blocked by landslides,
officials said.
The Indonesian air force deployed a helicopter and a plane as part of
the rescue efforts.
Officials say that the quake was felt for around 15 seconds, from
Banda Aceh, theregional capital, to Bener Meriah, one of the worst-hit
areas.
In Bener Meriah, about 300 people slept outdoors on Tuesday night as
the area washit by strong aftershocks and people were afraid to return
to their homes, a local officialtold AFP.
"We have a power outage nowand communications are unreliable," he added.
In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Indonesia triggered a tsunami that
killed some 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific
Ring ofFire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the
Pacific Basin.
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