A series of powerful earthquakes on Sunday morning rattled the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua, collapsing a number of buildings and injuring at least three people, officials said.

It struck at 2:43 p.m. EST, around 85 miles off of Manokwari, Irian Jaya, at a depth of about 6 miles.

Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official, said electricity went off and residents ran to higher ground.

A series of aftershocks followed the powerful quake, sparking a further panic among residents and deterring them from returning to their homes.

A more powerful aftershock, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre on land about 76 kilometres north-west of Manokwari, struck about two hours later but triggered no tsunami, said Fauzi, a BMG official in Jakarta.

Earthquake Japan