UPDATE - An Old Man Died in Aceh Quake

Banda Aceh, TAG – A 70-year-old man reportedly died while trying to escape while a powerful earthquake rocked the island of Simeulue in Indonesia's Aceh province on Wednesday morning, an official said.

Abdul Karim, the chief of Teupah Barat subdistrict in Simeulue island said during a phone interview that the victim’s name is Abdul Hadi aka Puyung. He is the resident of Gampong Salur in the area.

"He was shocked and fell down while trying to flee in panic. If the earthquake hit, Puyung was always fleeing to save his life, " Karim said, adding local government still collecting data damage caused by quake measuring 6.4-magnitude.

"There were unconfirmed reports saying that dozens houses and buildings damaged in Simeulue Tengah subdistrict," he told The Aceh Globe.

As reported earlier that a strong undersea earthquake hit off the west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province around 07:27 local time, sending terrified residents fleeing from homes and buildings but no tsunami was generated and there were no reports of injuries of damage.

The 6.6-magnitude quake struck some 300 kilometers (186 miles) southwest of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, at a depth of 45 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said.

However, Indonesian Meteorology Agency put the 6.4-magnitude quake some 24 kilometers of southwest Simeulue district, a beautiful island in Aceh province, at a depth of 10 kilometer.

Residents in Simeulue, said violent shaking was felt for about a minute and had caused an electricity blackout.

A local journalist in the area said, "There is no electrical power in some areas, and I can see cracks in the walls of homes around me."

"Some people are returning inside their homes, but others are still outside, afraid there may be aftershocks," he said as qouted by AFP.

The tremors also felt by residents in the entire west coast of Aceh province such as Singkil, Tapaktuan, Meulaboh, Calang as well as the capital Banda Aceh. It’s also reported felt by people in Malaysia.

Indonesian Meteorology Agency placed the quake in the sea off Simeulue, but did not issue a tsunami warning. It said slight shaking was also felt in the city of Banda Aceh, about 360 kilometres from Simeulue.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. A giant quake on December 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Aceh.[]