by Presi Mandari
JAKARTA - A strong earthquake of 6.7-magnitude struck off Sumbawa island in southeastern Indonesia early Monday, killing three and injuring 45, the health ministry said, as aftershocks frayed residents' nerves.
"Two more are dead," health ministry spokesman Rustam Pakaya told AFP after earlier confirming the death of a five-year-old boy, and reporting that 45 people were injured.
He did not provide any details on the fatalities.
Most of the injured were being treated at the general hospital in Dompu, one of the worst-affected districts, said a doctor there, Suriyani.
"We received 34 people injured. Some with slight injuries have gone home already but some 20 people are still under hospital treatment, with broken bones, open wounds and head injuries caused by collapsing walls," she told AFP.
ElShinta radio reported that 200 houses had been damaged in Dompu district, but police could not immediately confirm this figure.
The Indonesian meteorological agency measured the quake at 6.7, though the US Geological Survey later revised its same initial calculation down to 6.4.
The earthquake, which hit at 12:02 am (1602 GMT), occurred 44 kilometres (27 miles) west of Raba and 349 kilometres east of Denpasar, Bali, at a depth of 30 kilometres, the USGS said.
Repeated aftershocks rattled the island and triggered panic among nervous residents, including one measuring 5.6.
ElShinta radio reported that about 100 people along the coast in the town of Bima panicked and rushed to higher ground, fearing a possible tsunami.
"People screamed and ran out of their houses. They're staying now outside on the street and some prefer to stay at the soccer field -- nobody is in their house," resident Adit told the station.
Nuraini, a worker at the health ministry in Dompu district, told AFP she was in her office when the largest aftershock struck.
"We rushed outside. It was actually not strong but we're traumatised. I'm still outside," she told AFP, speaking by mobile phone.
A 5.0-magnitude aftershock struck just over an hour after the initial temblor, causing panic at a hospital in Raba town, about 50 kilometres east of Dompu. Its 300 patients were evacuated twice but there were no reports of casualties in the area, a worker said.
"All the patients in the hospital rushed to the open air outside, they felt the quake quite strongly," Nining told AFP.
The Indonesian meteorological agency said a tsunami warning was issued, though for technical reasons it was not sent as usual by text message to media.
"There were some problems with the technical equipment and the quake was read as being on land, when actually is was undersea," agency official Ali Imron told AFP.
The quake was felt on the nearby resort islands of Lombok and Bali.
"I felt the shake for almost one minute," east Lombok resident Hariono told the radio station.
The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Sumbawa is located about 1,200 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta, separated by narrow straits from the islands of Lombok and Flores in the archipelago of West Nusa Tenggara.
The area has seen deadly disasters in the past, including a tsunami on Flores in 1992 that killed more than 2,000, and the eruption of Tambora on Sumbawa in 1815, the overall deadliest volcanic eruption in history.
Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004, which killed 168,000 people in Aceh province alone.
prm/sb/bgs

11/26/2007 04:54 GMT