Indonesia Aceh Earthquake Update: Death Toll Climbs As Rescuers Search For Survivors

A 6.5-magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia's Sumatra island early Wesnesday has claimed the lives of 97 people, the army chief in Indonesia's Aceh province said. Rescue workers are currently searching the rubble of several collapsed buildings for survivors.

Maj. Gen. Tatang Sulaiman said in a live television interview that four people were pulled from the rubble alive. Nearly half a dozen were still believed to be buried, but it was unclear if they were alive, Sulaiman reportedly said.

"Hopefully we would be able to finish the evacuation from the rubble before sunset," he said, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Sutopo Nugroho of the National Disaster Management Agency said a state of emergency had been declared in Aceh, which sits on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

The U.S. Geological Survey said that the shallow quake was centered about 6 miles north of Reuleut, a town in northern Aceh, at a depth of 11 miles. There was no risk of a tsunami following the quake, according to Indonesian authorities. The worst-hit area in the quake was Pidie Jaya, the district closest to the epicenter of the undersea quake.

Pidie Jaya district chief Aiyub Abbas reportedly said that hundreds of people in the district have been injured and dozens of buildings have collapsed.

The disaster management agency also reportedly said that at least five aftershocks were felt following the initial quake.

The region suffered massive destruction in 2004 when a 9.2-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that killed 170,000 people in Indonesia, 35,000 in Sri Lanka, 18,000 in India and 8,000 in Thailand.