JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into a beach resort on Indonesia's Java island Monday, damaging hotels and sending boats smashing into houses, a witness told a local radio station.

The witness also reported three deaths, though there was no immediate confirmation from officials.

People fled to a hill to escape the wave on Pangandaran beach in west Java, a witness named Teti told el-Shinta radio station.

"All the houses are destroyed along the beach," she said.

It was followed by a 6.1-magnitude aftershock two hours later.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said he had heard reports about a tsunami striking two seaside towns, and urged people living on Java's southern coast to move inland in an orderly fashion.

"Everyone should move from the beach," he told el-Shinta.

The earthquake, which hit at 3:24 p.m. local time, had triggered a tsunami warning on Indonesia's Java and Sumatra islands and Australia's Christmas and Cocos islands.

The quake caused tall buildings to sway in the Indonesian capital and at least one other city on Java Island for around two minutes, witnesses said.

"There is a possibility of a destructive local tsunami in the Indian Ocean," Japan's Meteorological Agency said in a statement.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a similar bulletin.

The Japanese and Pacific tsunami warning centers did not give the depth of the quake, but local media reports quoting Indonesian officials said it was more than 18 miles below the ocean floor.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 216,000 people, nearly half of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.

On May 27, a magnitude-5.9 earthquake devastated a large swath of Java Island, killing more than 5,800 people.

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