AKIPRESS.COM - At least 97 people died Wednesday after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, the CBS News reported.

Indonesia's national disaster mitigation agency said 78 people suffered serious injuries and dozens more were feared trapped in collapsed and damaged buildings.

The death toll was expected to rise. It has doubled in the last few hours, Indonesia's army said.

The shallow earthquake struck at 5:03 a.m. local time (5 p.m. ET Tuesday) and was centered about 6 miles north of Reuleut, a town in northern Aceh. It had a depth of 11 miles. It did not generate a tsunami.

"The earthquake was felt strongly and many people panicked and rushed outdoors as houses collapsed," Sutopo Nugroho of Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency, said in a statement.

The quake was another terrifying reminder of their region’s vulnerability to natural disasters. More than 100,000 died in Aceh after the Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami.