Jakarta, Mar 18 (UNI) Three earthquakes struck Indonesia on Tuesday, with a 5.5-magnitude tremor hitting North Sumatra province in the morning and two earlier quakes in Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara, the country's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency reported.

The 5.5-magnitude quake struck North Sumatra province at 5:22 a.m. local time on Tuesday. The epicentre was located 17 km southeast of North Tapanuli Regency at a depth of 10 km.

"One person was killed, and another was injured. Several houses and a road were severely damaged, and the road is now impassable for transport," head of the emergency, equipment, and logistics unit of North Sumatra Provincial Disaster Management Agency Sri Wahyuni Pancasilawati told Xinhua. She added that risk assessments were underway.

Earlier, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Maluku province at 00:32 a.m. local time on Tuesday. The agency initially recorded its magnitude at 6.0 before revising it downward.

Ten minutes later, a 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck East Nusa Tenggara province.

No tsunami alert was issued following the three earthquakes, as the tremors were not expected to generate large waves.

Indonesia, an archipelagic country with 127 active volcanoes, frequently experiences earthquakes due to its location within the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire.

UNI XINHUA ARN