Earthquake of magnitude 5.8 strikes Indonesia's Sumatra, one killed

One person was killed on Saturday in an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 in Indonesia's Northern Sumatra region, according to the nation's BMKG meteorological and geophysics office.

BMKG head Dwikorita Karnawati said, nine people were hurt as a result of the earthquake, which was felt in a few places and forced residents to leave their houses.

She said that there was no tsunami risk but warned of probable landslides in mountainous places. The earthquake was initially felt at 2:28 a.m. (1928 GMT), and 53 aftershocks were reported following it.

Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes, straddling the "Pacific Ring of Fire", a seismically active zone where different plates of the earth's crust meet.

The fault along Sumatra island can be particularly active and dangerous. In 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude quake and a tsunami off the northern tip of Sumatra killed 226,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.

(with inputs from agencies)