Indonesia Earthquake Kills Four

An earthquake early Monday killed at least four people and damaged scores of buildings on Indonesia's Sumatra island, which is still recovering from the 2004 Asian tsunami, witnesses and seismologists said.

The 5.5-magnitude tremor was felt across western and northern parts of the island, sending frightening people running from homes and hotels in many villages and towns, witnesses told el-Shinta radio station.

The quake struck just before dawn and was centered below north Sumatra province, Indonesia's meteorological and seismological agency said. It was followed by a series of panic-provoking aftershocks.

At least four people were killed in one village in Mandailing Natal district when two houses collapsed, a caller to local radio station el-Shinta said who identified himself as Soga. Scores of other buildings were cracked, he said.

Several minutes before the quake, a 5.8 magnitude tremor struck off the coast, seismological agencies said. No tsunami warning was issued as a result of that quake.

Sumatra lies just east of the one of the world's most dangerous fault lines.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a massive quake spawned a tsunami that killed or left missing some 230,000 people in 12 Indian Ocean nations, with more than half of the dead in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra.