Jakarta  - A 7.3-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's Java Island Wednesday, killing one person and injuring 29, an official said.

The quake was felt strongly in the capital Jakarta, shaking buildings and sending residents running out of their homes and high-rise office towers in panic.

A tsunami alert was cancelled about 45 minutes later after no giant waves materialized, seismologists said.

The quake struck at 2:55 pm (0755 GMT) with its epicentre in the Indian Ocean, about 142 kilometres south-west of Tasikmalaya district in West Java, about 30 kilometres beneath the seabed.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Health Ministry's crisis centre, said one person was killed in Cibinong town near Jakarta and most of the 29 people injured were in the capital.

"Some of those injured were in serious condition," he said.

Earlier he said buildings were damaged in Tasikmalaya.

The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 7.4.

An aftershock measuring 5.1 magnitude was felt in Tasikmalaya about 20 minutes after the quake.

Reports from several West Java cities and district towns the powerful quake also cut electricity and telephone lines.

"All people here panicked. I saw roofs falling down," Lia Amalia, a visitor at a shopping mall in Bogor, about 60-kilometres south of Jakarta, told detik. com online news service.

MetroTV reported from the West Java district of Cianjur that a number of homes were damaged following the quake. (dpa)