2ND LD: M6.8 quake hits East Africa, 3 dead, 3 hurt in Congo: report.

NAIROBI, Dec. 5 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CASUALTIES)

A powerful earthquake toppled homes onto children in eastern Congo Monday, killing at least one child in a region already beset by war, poverty and volcanoes, the Associated Press reported.

Dr. Jean-Donne Owali told The Associated Press by telephone that two people died from quake injuries in his clinic in lakeside Kalemie, 55 kilometers from the epicenter.

''Dozens of houses have collapsed, several children were buried by the roofs of their houses,'' Owali had been quoted as saying earlier. ''Injured people have been sent to local hospitals.''

U.N. spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux reportedly said two houses and a church ''crumbled.''

''There are three wounded,'' Bonnardeaux was quoted as saying. ''There was one death, a child who died of its wounds.''

Bonnardeaux had said earlier most of the casualties were struck by falling zinc and steel roofs, the AP report said, adding damage was reported in Kabalo, a Congolese town 300 km east of Kalemie along the Lukuga River.

The desperately poor region has camps for tens of thousands of refugees from wars and economic collapse in Congo and Burundi.

The U.S. Geological Survey gave a preliminary measurement of 6.8 and located the epicenter about 10 km below the surface of Lake Tanganyika, between Congo and Tanzania.

Across Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, the Kigoma Regional Commissioner reportedly said authorities were waiting for police stations in remote parts of Tanzania to investigate and report possible casualties. Kigoma, the main transport hub for western Tanzania and the main Tanzanian port for Lake Tanganyika, was 150 km from the center of the quake.

The quake was felt as far east as Nairobi, some 1,000 km from Lake Tanganyika. There were reports of tremors being felt as far south as the shores of Lake Victoria, some 1,100 km away, the report said.