JAKARTA, Indonesia --

Another powerful earthquake has struck western Indonesia for a second straight day, triggering a tsunami alert.

The United States Geological Survey said the latest quake hit the Kepulauan Mentawai region in western Indonesia at about 6:48 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, which was early Thursday morning in Indonesia.

The tremor had a magnitude of 7.8 and it was centered 117 miles from Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra island, at a depth of 20 miles.

The quake followed a massive quake off the island of Sumatra that left at least five dead and hundreds injured on Wednesday.

Wednesday's 8.4-magnitude quake badly damaged buildings along the coast and triggered tsunami warnings for much of the Indian Ocean region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also reported that a small tsunami hit the Indonesian town of Padang.

Officials at the center said the warning covered wide areas of the Indian Ocean region and Australia.

An official told an Indonesian news agency that at least five people were killed in three Sumatran towns. The initial quake triggered a wave of up to 9 feet in western Indonesia. A series of aftershocks, including one measuring 6.6, triggered a second tsunami alert for Indonesia.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9 and hit at about 7:10 a.m. EDT. It was centered 9.7 miles underground in the southern Sumatra area, the USGS said, 375 miles west-northwest of Jakarta.

It was also felt in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that the earthquake had the potential to generate a widely destructive tsunami in the ocean or seas near the earthquake, and it recommended evacuation of the coasts within about 600 miles of the epicenter. The quake could be felt in at least four countries. Tall buildings in Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta swayed as far as 1,200 miles away.