India on tsunami alert after quake near Indonesia

Jakarta: A powerful earthquake off western Indonesia triggered warnings of a potentially destructive tsunami across much of the Indian Ocean region on Wednesday, meteorological agencies said.

The US Geological Survey said the underwater quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9. It was centered 105 km southwest of Sumatra island at a depth of 15.6 km.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region. ''Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a widespread destructive tsunami that can affect coastlines across the entire Indian Ocean Basin,'' it said, warning that waves could hit Indonesia and Australia within an hour, and Sri Lanka and India.

Tsunami alert for AP coastal districts

The Union Home Ministry sent has asked Governments of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry, Union Territory to be on the highest alert. The army, airforce, navy and para-military forces have also been alerted. Fishermen have been alerted and advised not to venture in the sea.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has asked top officials in coastal districts to maintain a strict vigil and be ready to evacuate people from coastal areas to interior places.

The districts put on high alert were Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore.

Back in Indonesia

Panicked residents in Bengkulu, the Sumatran town closest to the epicenter, said people were running inland but there was no indication of a tsunami 1 1/2 hours after the temblor.

Many houses were destroyed, one person told the news portal detik.com, but he had no word about casualties. Electricity and phone lines were down.

''Everyone is running out of their houses in every direction,'' Wati Said told The Associated Press by mobile telephone. ''We think our neighborhood is high enough. God willing, if the water comes, it will not touch us here.''

''We are all afraid.''

The quake caused tall buildings to sway in at least four countries.

Office workers streamed down the stairwells in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 600 kilometers away. Some people in high-rises in neighboring Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand also felt the quake.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific ''Ring of Fire,'' an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A massive Decemer 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra which killed more than 160,000 in a dozen nations, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province. The 9.0 temblor and was 29 km deep, according to USGS.