Hong Kong: Many states along India's east coast felt tremors as a high intensity earthquake rocked Sumatra Wednesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. A tsunami warning has been issued in India and 27 other countries
While the IMD put its intensity at 8.5 on the Richter scale, the US Geological Survey classified it an 8.9 temblor, whose epicentre was at a depth of 33 km.
The quake was centred 20 miles beneath the ocean floor around 308 miles from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
People there screamed 'God is great!' as they jumped into cars and the backs of motorcycles, clogging streets as they fled to high ground.
Buildings there shook for four minutes
The 9.1-magnitude quake seven years go triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, nearly three quarter of them in Aceh, which is on the Sumatra island.
The earthquake had its epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra and occurred at 2.08 p.m., the IMD said.
There have been no reports so far of loss of life or property in India or elsewhere.
The IMD also said that shocks were felt along the eastern part of Indian and a tsunami alert had been issued along the eastern coast by the Indian National Tsunami Early Warning System (Incois).
People in Sri Lankan capital Colombo and several other parts of the island felt tremors following a major earthquake that struck Indonesia Wednesday.
"Tremors have been felt in many parts of the country, including the western and southern provinces, following the earthquake in Indonesia," a spokesperson of the meteorological department said.
Officials said a few high-rise buildings in Colombo have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, Xinhua reported.
There were varying estimates of the Sumatra quake. The US Geological Survey classified it an 8.9 temblor, while the India Meteorological Department put its intensity at 8.5 on the Richter scale.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued the tsunami watch for 28 places, including Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, Maldives, Britain, Malaysia, Mauritius, Syechelles, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Madagascar, Iran, UAE, Yemen, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, South Africa and Singapore.
There were reports of the water level dropping in the Thai resort of Phuket - a sign that the sea is drawing back in preparation to launch an enormous wave.
The Royal Navy sending 15 ships to Andaman islands, Indian territories that lie just north of the Aceh province, in preparation to help with any potential disaster.
A tsunami watch means there is the potential for a tsunami, not that one is imminent. Since 2004 such warnings are issued after every earthquake in the Pacific.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
Strike point: The spot where the earthquake hit and bubbles that show where the tsunami is most likely to hit
