JAKARTA: An earthquake registering 6.0 on the Richter scale shook an island in eastern Indonesia on Friday, killing six people and injuring at least 46, government officials said.

According to a local government official in the town of Kalabahi on Alor island, Hasan Kito, the number of injured was 46 and could increase as the rescue work is going on.

The quake damaged more than 65 buildings including churches, schools and clinics, he added.

Many residents in Kalabahi were asleep when the quake struck. Aftershocks were still rocking the island later in the day.

"We can still feel the jolts now every five to 10 minutes. When it first happened, all of us panicked and tried to run from our houses," said Kito, who works for the regency office.

"Some were still wearing their undergarments. We were just so shocked," he said, adding the government had erected makeshift tents for victims.

Petrus Demonsili, who works at an earthquake monitoring centre in the city of Kupang on a nearby island, said the earthquake struck Kalabahi, 2,000 kilometres east of Jakarta, at around 5:26 am (2126 GMT Thursday).

"According to reports, the airport runway there has cracks now and several concrete buildings have collapsed," he said by telephone from Kupang on the Indonesian side of Timor island.

Around 170,000 people live on the picturesque but poor island of Alor, which is predominantly Christian and known for its intricate weaving products. Most of the population resides in seaside Kalabahi and nearby hillside villages.

Rugged terrain has become an obstacle for rescuers trying to reach more remote areas on the mountainous island, located across a strait from East Timor's capital city of Dili.

A witness in Dili said the quake was also felt in the world's youngest country but there had been no reports of damage so far.

Earthquakes often happen in Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands that lies along the Pacific "ring of fire."

An earthquake registering 7.1 on the Richter scale that hit Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua in February killed at least 30 people and left around 26,000 homeless.

(China Daily 11/13/2004 page7)