Fresh quake on the 'Ring of Fire': Indonesia is struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake sparking brief tsunami warning

A massive 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's densely populated Sulawesi region on Friday sparking fears of a possible tsunami.

The meteorology and geophysics agency issued an early tsunami warning for people in Central Sulawesi and West Sulawesi provinces, asking people to evacuate to higher ground.

'People in shore areas, please move away from the coastline,' Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said in a televised interview.

Sulawesi is the fourth largest Indonesian island and is home to around 18million people - all of whom have been put on alert following the quake on Friday. 

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7.

The earlier quake destroyed some houses, killing one person and injuring at least 10, authorities said.

'The quake was felt very strongly, we expects more damage and more victims,' Nugroho said.

A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500 people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of kilometres southwest of Sulawesi.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.