Strong quake shakes Indonesia’s Sumatra, no damage or tsunami alert given

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 shook buildings and caused momentary panic in the Indonesian port city of Padang on Thursday, officials and residents said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre did not issue an alert immediately after the quake and Indonesia’s BMK weather agency said there was no threat of a tsunami.

The quake was centred about 155km south of Padang, off the coast of Sumatra island at a depth of about 50km, the USGS said. It had originally been reported with a magnitude of 6.2.

Memories are still fresh in Indonesia of the massive 9.15 magnitude undersea quake that triggered an Indian Ocean tsunami which killed more than 200,000 people in a dozen countries.

Most of those killed were in the province of Aceh on Sumatra’s northwest tip.