Tweet
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck in the ocean near India's Nicobar Islands late tonight, sparking some tsunami warnings, the US Geological Survey and local officials said.
There were no initial reports of casualties or damage, although people ran from their homes in fear on Nicobar, witnesses said.
The quake was originally registered with a magnitude of 7.7 but that figure was later revised down slightly to 7.5, the USGS said in a statement.
Advertisement
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii also revised an earlier regional tsunami watch that was put in effect for all areas of the Indian Ocean, including India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.
'Due to the downward revision of the earthquake magnitude to 7.5 as well as additional analysis of the earthquake ... the area of the watch is now reduced only to India,' it said on its website (www.weather.gov/ptwc/).
The epicentre of the quake was 155 km west of Misha on the Nicobar Islands at a depth of 34 km, USGS said, slightly revising earlier figures.
Indian meteorological authorities said there was no tsunami threat to the Indian mainland.
'There has been no significant changes in the water level and we have not issued any tsunami alert for the region,' said Srinivas Kumar, an official from the Tsunami Centre in India's southern city of Hyderabad.
People ran from their houses in Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, immediately after the quake struck, officials and witnesses said.
'There was a total blackout and the whole town was plunged into darkness for a while as we ran out of our houses fearing for our lives,' said Robin Biswas, a witness in Port Blair.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in its revised warning that local tsunamis could affect coasts within 100 km of the quake's epicentre.
'Authorities for the region near the epicentre should be aware of this possibility,' it said.
Sri Lanka issued a separate tsunami warning for its coastal areas but later withdrew the notice after watching for possible evacuations of people in low-lying areas.
In Indonesia, which bore the brunt of a devastating tsunami in 2004, officials in Aceh in northwest Sumatra issued a tsunami warning after the original USGS quake alert.
There were no initial reports of casualties or damage, although people ran from their homes in fear on Nicobar, witnesses said.
The quake was originally registered with a magnitude of 7.7 but that figure was later revised down slightly to 7.5, the USGS said in a statement.
Advertisement
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii also revised an earlier regional tsunami watch that was put in effect for all areas of the Indian Ocean, including India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia.
'Due to the downward revision of the earthquake magnitude to 7.5 as well as additional analysis of the earthquake ... the area of the watch is now reduced only to India,' it said on its website (www.weather.gov/ptwc/).
The epicentre of the quake was 155 km west of Misha on the Nicobar Islands at a depth of 34 km, USGS said, slightly revising earlier figures.
Indian meteorological authorities said there was no tsunami threat to the Indian mainland.
'There has been no significant changes in the water level and we have not issued any tsunami alert for the region,' said Srinivas Kumar, an official from the Tsunami Centre in India's southern city of Hyderabad.
People ran from their houses in Port Blair, capital of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, immediately after the quake struck, officials and witnesses said.
'There was a total blackout and the whole town was plunged into darkness for a while as we ran out of our houses fearing for our lives,' said Robin Biswas, a witness in Port Blair.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in its revised warning that local tsunamis could affect coasts within 100 km of the quake's epicentre.
'Authorities for the region near the epicentre should be aware of this possibility,' it said.
Sri Lanka issued a separate tsunami warning for its coastal areas but later withdrew the notice after watching for possible evacuations of people in low-lying areas.
In Indonesia, which bore the brunt of a devastating tsunami in 2004, officials in Aceh in northwest Sumatra issued a tsunami warning after the original USGS quake alert.
