A powerful earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into a beach resort on Indonesia's Java island Monday, killing at five people and causing extensive damage to hotels, restaurants and homes, the president and witnesses said.

Indonesian school boys play near the wreckage of their school Monday, July 17, 2006 on the first day of the new school term in the Bantul district of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Aid workers say attending school is essential to restore a sense of normalcy to the lives of children affected by the May 27 magnitude 5.9 quake, which killed more than 5,700 people and made up to a million homeless on Java island. [AP]

People ran up a hill to escape the wave on Pangandaran beach in west Java, a woman who identified herself only as Teti told el-Shinta radio station.

"All the houses are destroyed along the beach," she said. "Small hotels are completely destroyed and at least one restaurant was washed away."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters that at least five people were killed.

The tsunami followed a quake that struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean 150 miles southwest of Java's western coast at 3:24 p.m. local time, causing tall buildings to sway as far off as the capital Jakarta.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.2, the US Geological Survey said.