Quakes rock India, Japan

2009-08-11 00:03

Port Blair - A major 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean off India's Andaman Islands early on Tuesday, triggering a tsunami watch for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

"The room shook for around 20 to 30 seconds, it was quite strong," said Reuters correspondent Sanjit Kumar Roy in Port Blair, capital of the islands.

He said that in the northern part of Andaman Island, people ran out of their houses in panic. Police said there had been no reports so far of any damage.

The US Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.7, struck at 01:55 (19:55 GMT on Monday). It was shallow, at a depth of 33km, and was centred 260km north of Port Blair.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami watch for the region.

"Earthquakes of this size have the potential to generate a destructive local tsunami and sometimes a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located usually no more than a thousand kilometres from the earthquake epicentre," the tsunami centre said in its bulletin.

Monitoring water levels

However, an official at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services said a tsunami warning had not been issued by his department.

"We have not issued a tsunami alert and are monitoring the water level changes in the region at the moment," Ajay Kumar told Reuters by phone.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a chain of small islands hundreds of miles east of India in the Indian Ocean.

A 7.6 magnitude quake is classified by the USGS as a major earthquake and is capable of widespread, heavy damage.

An even bigger quake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 caused a tsunami that killed some 228 000 people.

In Indonesia, a meteorology agency official said his agency was monitoring the Aceh area on the tip of Sumatra. So far there had been no reports of a tsunami in Indonesia but it could take two hours for one to reach the coastline.

Earthquake in Japan

Meanwhile, a strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 jolted eastern and central Japan early on Tuesday, throwing food and bottles from shop shelves and rattling houses across Tokyo.

The area has been hit by heavy rain since Monday and the weather agency warned of possible landslides and flooding, as train services were suspended and highways were closed for checks.

The focus of the 05:07 (20:07 GMT, Monday) tremor was 20km below the surface of Suruga Bay, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, in Shizuoka prefecture, around 150km southwest of Tokyo.

A tsunami of up to 60cm was recorded along the Pacific coast.

"It was a sideways shaking like I've never experienced before. Things fell from the shelves," Atsushi Imai, a local city employee, told national broadcaster NHK.

Nuclear plant suspends operations

Chubu Electric Power Co Inc suspended operations at its Hamaoka nuclear plant after the quake for safety checks.

Some highways were closed after electric signboards failed to operate and at least one train line was halted, NHK said.

TV pictures showed glass bottles shattered on a convenience store floor and a TV newsroom with video tapes thrown from shelves.

"There are no reports of fire. Someone hurt their leg after a TV fell off a shelf and was taken to hospital," Kinichi Tashiro, a fire department official in Yaizu, Shizuoka, told NHK.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3 000.

That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6 400.

- Reuters