The National Disaster Management Agency announced 3 people dead and 24 others injured in a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that occurred in Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province on Friday.

It was disclosed at least 300 houses were destroyed and thousands of residents fled their homes to seek safety after the quake.  

Other buildings revealed to have also been badly damaged include a military command office in Majene, and the Mitra Manakara private hospital, hotels and government building in the neighboring Mamuju area.

Saidar Rahmanjaya, Head of Local Search and Rescue Agency of Mamuju West Sulawesi, told a local television that "Our obstacle here is that we don't have heavy equipment to rescue them.

“Another difficulty was the lack of communication among rescue teams, as local telephone networks were down following the quake.”

 He added that there were eight locations where people were in urgent need of rescue.

Shalahuddin Salman, a resident of Mamuju, said many people were trapped because they were sleeping when the quake struck in the middle of the night.

"We saved four family members but one still can't be evacuated," he said.

West Sulawesi's Police Grand Commissioner, Syamsu Ridwan, said “Thousands of people who were able to flee have chosen to stay away from their homes out of fear of another earthquake or tsunami, although we have a confirmation that we have no tsunami after this big earthquake."

The country's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency also disclosed that the earthquake did not trigger a tsunami based on meteorology and climatology agency modelling.

However, the earthquake has caused power outage and caused three landslides along the main road connecting Majene and Mamuju.

Indonesia's disaster agency said a series of quakes in the past 24 hours had caused at least three landslides, and the electricity supply had been cut.

Hours earlier on Thursday, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck in the same district damaging several houses.

‘Straddling the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire', Indonesia, a nation of high tectonic activity, is regularly hit by earthquakes.’