Jakarta - Indonesian officials issued a second tsunami warning Wednesday night following an aftershock from a massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra Island earlier in the evening that killed at least four people, officials and reports said.
Indonesian office workers wait outside their building after the earthquake in Jakarta, 12 September 2007. The undersea quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.9, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was centered 65 miles southwest of Bengkulu, on Sumatra island, at a depth of 9.7 miles, the USGS said.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning for wide areas of the region. EPA/JURNASYANTO SUKARNO
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta issued the warning, the second in less than four hours, following a 6.6-magnitude earthquake around 9:40 pm (1440 GMT), about 70 kilometres southwest of the coastal town of Bengkulu, south Sumatra, at a depth of 18 kilometres, Sriwuri, an agency official, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The initial quake, measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale, struck in the same region at about 6:10 pm (1110 GMT), shaking coastal areas, the capital Jakarta on Java Island, West Java's Banten province, and prompting a tsunami alert that was called off around hours later.
However, the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami watch to 27 Indian Ocean rim nations, including India and Sri Lanka, following the initial quake.
The governments of India and Sri Lanka also issued tsunami alerts after the quake, which the US Geological Survey also measured it at a magnitude of 8.2.
Reports from Bengkulu province, on Sumatra's southwest coat, said panicky residents fled out of damaged buildings and into the streets, many running for higher ground in fear of tsunami waves.
Rustam Pakaya of the Indonesian Health Ministry's Crisis Centre in Jakarta told dpa that two people were killed and nine injured in Bengkulu and he expected the death count to rise.
The state-run Antara news agency reported that one person was killed in Bengkulu after being hit by falling debris from a house. Two people in the west Sumatran town of Padang were killed by flying glass from a damaged two-storey building, according to the detik.com news portal.
The tremblor and subsequent panic was a flashback to December 26, 2004, when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck nine Asian nations and killed 177,000 people alone in Indonesia's Aceh province, which lies on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Budi Adiputro, chief of staff of the National Disaster Coordinating Agency, told dpa that initial reports from Bengkulu, where communications were disrupted, did not indicate major casualties from the first quake but that authorities 'were still monitoring.'
Budi Harsono, a police official in Bengkulu told the Jakarta-based Elshinta radio station that he saw a three-storey building collapse following the quake, which triggered panic among residents, in particular those living in nearby the beach areas. Many of them fled by motorcycle to higher ground in fear of a tsunami.
Budi Waluyo, another geophysics agency official in Jakarta, told dpa that he had received reports of damaged buildings, in particular in Bengkulu, following the quake, which hit on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The quake took place about 159 kilometres south-west of Bengkulu and was about 10 kilometres beneath the seabed.
In Jakarta, the quake triggered panic among employees and residents in high-rise buildings, with at least two people reported having fainted, and countless more fleeing into the streets.
Indonesia is located along the Pacific volcanic belt known as the 'Ring of Fire,' where earthquakes and volcanoes are common.
Tremors were also felt in Malaysia's east coast, prompting mass evacuations from major corporate and residential buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
Indonesian officials issued a second tsunami warning Wednesday night following an aftershock from a massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra Island earlier in the evening that killed at least four people, officials and reports said.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department confirmed that tremors had hit several areas in the country's east coast, but no casualties have been reported.
Thousands of apartment residents and hundreds of office workers staying back late to work after-hours were forced to evacuate their buildings.
'I suddenly saw the water in my indoor aquarium splash about wildly, and heard shouts and screams from neighbours,' said Aarolyn Yip, a resident at a 17-storey apartment in the capital city. 'Once we reached the ground floor, we felt more tremors,' said Yip.
Last month, a powerful 7.5-magnitude quake struck off the northern coast of Java and was felt hundreds of miles away, but there were not damage or casualties because the temblor struck too deep in the ocean.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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