Earthquake rocks Indonesia province

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook Indonesia’s Aceh province early today, killing nearly 100 people and damaging about 245 buildings. Thousands of people are involved in a rescue effort in Meureudu, a severely affected town near the epicenter. More than 600 people were injured, the province’s disaster mitigation agency said. Due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines, Indonesia is prone to earthquakes. In 2004, a quake and tsunami killed a total of 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Aceh. Today’s earthquake did not trigger a tsunami.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.