Tsunami Panic After Huge Quake

Survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami fled their homes in terror last night after a huge undersea earthquake measuring up to 8.7 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of Sumatra, leaving hundreds feared dead close to its epicentre.

Ninety-three days after giant waves left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing, there were fears of hundreds of new casualties on the Indonesian island of Nias.

Agus Mendrofa, the deputy district head on Nias, off the western coast of Sumatra, told local radio that 296 people had died. He added that hundreds of buildings had been damaged or collapsed.

Sergeant Zulkifli Sirait of the island's police told AP: "We still cannot count the number of casualties or the number of collapsed buildings because it is dark here. It is possible that hundreds of people trapped in the collapsed buildings died."

The island's main town was likely to be 75% damaged, local police said, after the earthquake struck on the same faultline as the Boxing Day quake, 250 miles south-east of Banda Aceh.

The deputy police chief in Gunungsitoli town on Nias said: "Many people are hurt and many are still trapped in buildings. The earthquake was massive, it's still shaking now."

"Things are quite bad right now," one resident told local television. "There is much damage. People are running in panic. Many people are also trapped." At least 340 Nias residents died and 10,000 were left homeless in the December 26 earthquake. With a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean still the subject of political debate, governments in Thailand, India and Japan tried to warn residents through the radio and television after the earthquake struck 19 miles under the Andaman Sea at 11.09pm local time.

Last night, the threat of a tsunami appeared to recede, with the Thai, Sri Lankan and Indian governments cancelling their tsunami alerts. But in Australian officials warned that a tsunami could hit the country's western coast.

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, tens of thousands of people abandoned tents and temporary homes and ran for high ground in darkness when the earth shook for two minutes, far longer than the much smaller quakes in recent weeks. Electricity and phone lines were down across much of Sumatra as the earthquake was felt as far away as Bangkok and Singapore, where tall buildings swayed and people in high-rise hotels streamed on to the streets.

Recorded at 8.7 by the US Geological Survey and 8.5 by Japan's Meteorologic Agency, with an epicentre further south than the Boxing Day earthquake, seismologists warned that the latest earthquake had the potential to create another destructive tsunami at the end of a week of at least seven smaller aftershocks in the region.

Residents in the Sumatran city of Medan said they felt the tremors were stronger than on December 26. "It was very strong," said a telephone operator in Medan. "We all ran out of the building."

In Thailand, cracks in buildings appeared, apparently caused by the quake, and people were evacuated from hotels and hospitals in Phuket, Phang-Nga and Krabi.

Warnings were issued over the radio by officials charged with setting up a tsunami warning system in the country.

"About 3,000 to 4,000 tourists and locals have been evacuated from Patong and Kamala beaches to higher places," Wichai Buapradit, the deputy governor of Phuket, told Reuters. "We've told them to take their valuable belongings and to go to higher places."

Sirens rang out in Sri Lanka as towns on the east coast began frantically evacuating residents. Local media reported people had fled inland well in advance of any official government warn ings. Scientists last week predicted a magnitude 7.5 earthquake was possible in the region after the seismic slip on December 26 had piled dangerous levels of stress on to two vulnerable parts of the fault zone off the coast of Sumatra.

"There's been seismic activity throughout this zone that has been ongoing for the last three months," Dale Grant of the US Geological Survey told the BBC. "This is an aftershock of the great quake which is something we see as the earth tries to settle itself."

But Mr Grant said he would not expect potential tsunami wave heights to be "anywhere near as large" as those that pounded coastlines on Boxing Day because the quake was less strong. The December 26 event measured 9 on the Richter scale and left 1.5 million homeless across 11 countries.

The British Geological Survey said yesterday's earthquake "occurred close to the breaking point - the epicentre - of the Boxing Day quake".

"It could be described as the largest aftershock of this event," said senior seismologist David Booth. He said there was a "high probability" of a tsunami occurring "but because the earthquake is of such a shallow depth and is offshore, it would be on a much smaller scale than the Boxing Day disaster".

India said it had issued a tsunami warning as a precaution and put troops on alert along its coastline but said it had no evidence or reports of any deadly waves.

In the Indian-controlled Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have been rocked by 100 aftershocks since the December tsunami, local authorities issued a tsunami warning asking local people to vacate the coast. Scientists at Hyderabad's National Geophysical Research Institute interviewed on Indian television warned that if a tsunami was to be generated there was a three-hour window before the coast would be hit.

On Sunday, a quake measuring 6.4 came 40 minutes after midnight local time in Indonesia's eastern province of Maluku. A second aftershock, measuring 6.0 magnitude, came seven hours later. On Friday, a 5.9 quake hit near Banda Aceh. Despite panic and evacuations, there was also complacency on the streets of the devastated areas that have become weary of aftershocks. With no sign of a tsunami two hours after the tremors, many Indonesians roused from sleep returned to their beds.

Reaction across the region

Dozens dead on Indonesia's Nias island

The Geological Survey of Sri Lanka issued a 'national warning of an impending natural disaster' as a precaution. The country's presidential office followed with a tsunami warning, and residents of the eastern town of Trincomalee were evacuated

The government of the Andaman and Nicobar islands issued a preliminary tsunami warning but did not evacuate

In Thailand, cracks appeared in buildings and people were evacuated from hotels and hospitals in Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi

Authorities in the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, which were struck on Boxing Day, ordered evacuation from some coastal areas. Fishermen were told not to go to sea

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, tens of thousands of people abandoned tents and temporary homes

Phone lines were down across much of Sumatra

The quake was felt as far away as Bangkok and Singapore, shaking tall buildings

Authorities on Indonesia's Nias island declared that hundreds of residents were feared dead and 75% of the main town was damaged