Quakes kill at least three on Indonesian island*

Reuters
Sunday, November 25, 2007; 10:05 PM

JAKARTA (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and 45 injured
when powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Sumbawa island in
central Indonesia, a health ministry official said on Monday.

Several buildings, including a health clinic, collapsed in the island's
Bima district, said Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's
crisis centre.

"The casualties are likely to increase and we are still assessing the
situation," Pakaya told Reuters.

The quakes affected the eastern side of Sumbawa island, a rugged
volcanic island that gets fewer tourists than neighboring Lombok and Bali.

The first quake of magnitude 6.7 struck 30 miles northwest of Raba in
Sumbawa just after midnight, an official at the country's meterology
agency said.

A second quake of 6.8 struck about four hours later in the same area,
triggering a brief tsunami warning, the official added.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also said the quake could have
produced a local tsunami no more than 100 km from the earthquake's
epicenter.

The U.S. geological survey put the second quake at magnitude 6.3.

An earthquake measuring 6.0 also struck off the coast of Sumatra island
in the early hours of Monday, some 100 km (60 miles) southwest of
Mukomuko in Bengkulu, the local meteorology agency said. There was no
tsunami warning.

On Sunday, a quake with a 6.2 magnitude hit the same area.

More than 20 people were killed when an 8.4 magnitude earthquake hit the
Bengkulu area on September 12, damaging or destroying thousands of homes.

Indonesia, which is situated in a belt of intense seismic activity known
as the "Pacific Ring of Fire," was hit by a huge earthquake in December
2004, triggering a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which killed
more than 230,000 people in the region, including 170,000 Indonesians.

(Reporting by Ahmad Pathoni and Telly Nathalia; Editing by Ed Davies)