BANGKOK — A powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake struck more than 200 miles off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, spreading panic among residents and reviving memories of the devastating 2004 quake and tsunami in the same area.
The Indonesian government said there were no reports of casualties or significant damage from the initial earthquake, but several strong aftershocks were reported in the afternoon and early evening. The largest measured 8.2, the United States Geological Survey said.
The earthquake was felt in Singapore, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia and India, news agencies reported, with coastal areas of southern Thailand and eastern India declaring tsunami alerts and Indonesia issuing a tsunami warning following the aftershocks.
Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told reporters at a news conference in Jakarta that the quake had caused “a little bit of panic.”
In Banda Aceh, which was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in 2004, buildings shook for several minutes and people poured into the streets from their homes, said Rizal, a resident of the city reached by telephone.
“The only problem we had was people panicking,” he said.
The 2004 tsunami, caused by a giant 9.1-magnitude earthquake, killed 230,000 people in more than a dozen countries.
Wednesday’s quake was not as powerful and seismologists said its horizontal motion made it less likely to trigger a large tsunami.
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