Massive quake hits Indonesia, tsunami warning issued

JAKARTA (Nation, DPA): A powerful earthquake jolted parts of Indonesia’s Java and Sumatra islands at 6:10 pm this evening, prompting Indonesian government authorities to issue a tsunami warning.

The Thai Meteorological Department said the earthquake that hit Indonesia happened at the same active fault that triggered tsunami on December 26, 2004.

“This is very dangerous situation. We have to watch our coasts more closely. My department is on alert to monitor the situation, so that we could warn our people before it happens,” Suparuek Tansrirattanawong, chief the department said.

The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, shook Jakarta, West Java’s Banten province, parts of South and West Sumatra, said Fauzi, an official at Jakarta’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

“We have issued a warning that the quake could potentially trigger a tsunami,” Fauzi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The United States Geological Survey center (USGS) reported that the quake happened 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Bengkulu, Sumatra, which is 695 km (435 miles) south-southwest of Singapore, at a depth of about 30 kilometers.

No immediate casualties or injuries were reported.

Although at the time of posting on Net no tsunami warning had been issued for Phuket or the other Andaman provinces, the Gazette advises all people along the Andaman coast to exercise caution and to calmly evacuate danger areas if a tsunami warning is issued.