One dead after strong quake strikes near Indonesia's Ambon

At least one person died on Thursday after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Indonesia’s eastern province of Maluku, damaging buildings and sending people fleeing to the hills, officials and witnesses said, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Disaster officials said the early morning quake, initially measured at a magnitude of 6.8, woke residents of towns such as the provincial capital of Ambon, about 40 km (25 miles) from the epicenter, but the geophysics agency ruled out a tsunami.

Part of the third floor at an Islamic university collapsed in the quake, killing one person, said Benny Bugis, a cameraman who works for Reuters.

"He was just getting out of a car and entering a door and the collapsing rubble fell onto him,” Bugis said, adding that two people were also injured.

Albert Simaela, a disaster agency official in Ambon, confirmed the death.

"Now everyone has headed to the hills, by motorcycles, by cars and on foot. The traffic is clogged,” he told Reuters.