Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported on Wednesday that a 6.5 magnitude earthquake was felt in the country at around 4.30 pm following an earthquake of 8.7 Richter scale that hit the Aceh Province.
BMKG is sending a team to the Aceh province, the epicentre of the quake, though it maintained that tsunami is unlikely to happen.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii had already issued the Tsunami alert in countries like Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Bangladesh, Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, the Maldives and other Indian Ocean islands.
The US Geological Survey said that the quake struck 308 miles (500 km) southwest of the city of Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra Island, at a depth of 20.5 miles (33 km).
It maybe recalled that a giant earthquake hit the island nation on Dec 26, 2004 killing around 230, 000 people around the Indian Ocean counties.
Tremors were felt in Indian cities like Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Patna, Vizag, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar and several other places in coastal areas following the massive earthquake in Indonesia.
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said that tsunami is unlikely to happen in the Indian Ocean. Union Home secretary also asked the people not to panic, as Indian coastal line is unlikely to be affected.
In the meantime, Tsunami alerts have been issued in India's coastal cities.
Tsunami Alert in India: Timings
- Tsunami likely to hit Little Andaman at 15:46 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Port Blair at 16:02 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit North Andaman at 16:22 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Chennai at 16:57 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Kakinada at 17:35 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Trivandrum at 17:38 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Mangalore at 19:06 IST
- Tsunami likely to hit Bombay at 21:38 IST
