One person died and dozens were injured after a moderate 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Sumatra island on Tuesday, a health ministry official said.

"One elderly person, 70 years old, died and 60 people were injured," Rustam Pakaya, chief of the health ministry's crisis centre, told AFP.

He said 10 of the injured were being treated at a hospital in Lahat town, South Sumatra province.

Pakaya said from Jakarta that the quake also damaged about 25 houses.

The quake hit at 10:07 am (0307 GMT), 51 kilometres (31 miles) southwest of Tebing Tinggi in Bengkulu province, the Indonesian meteorology and geophysics agency said via text message.

It struck inland at a depth of 10 kilometres and was strongly felt in Lahat, the agency said.

The United States Geological Survey measured the quake at 5.4-magnitude.

Another earthquake, measuring 5.6 in magnitude, hit northeast of Pagai Utara island in West Sumatra province on Monday, the Indonesian agency said.

At least 23 people died and thousands of homes were damaged last September when an 8.4-magnitude quake hit West Sumatra and other areas.

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Asian tsunami in December 2004 that killed 168,000 people in the country's Aceh province.

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet, causing seismic and volcanic activity.