PADANG, Indonesia (Reuters) — A massive quake struck on Wednesday (March 2) off the Indonesia island of Sumatra, leading to panic among residents.
Residents of Padang, capital of west Sumatra province, left for higher ground seeking safety. Heavy traffic could be seen on the roads.
The region was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami, but initial fears of another region-wide disaster faded as tsunami warnings were cancelled.
Indonesia and Australian authorities called off their tsunami alerts within two hours of the 7.8 magnitude tremor, though it was still unclear if the quake had destroyed any buildings or killed people in Sumatra.
A National Search and Rescue Agency official gave an initial report of some deaths, but later withdrew those comments.
There were no immediate reports of damage, but the shallower a quake, the more dangerous it is. The U.S. Geological Survey originally put the magnitude at 8.2, revising it down to 7.8.
The epicenter was 808 km (502 miles) southwest of Padang. It was 24 km (15 miles) deep, it said, after first putting its depth at 10 km.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said a tsunami was unlikely.
Indonesia, especially Aceh, was badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
A 9.15-magnitude quake opened a fault line deep beneath the ocean on December 26, 2004, triggering a wave as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet) that crashed ashore in more than a dozen countries to wipe some communities off the map in seconds.
The disaster killed 126,741 people in Aceh alone.
Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
