BANGKOK | Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:18pm IST
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A tsunami warning and evacuation order were issued by disaster prevention authorities in the southern Thai provinces of Phuket and Phangnga on Wednesday after a huge earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia.
“The province has turned on the warning sirens and asked people all over Phuket island to move to a safe place,” an official from the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Centre told Reuters by telephone.
An official from the warning centre Phangnga told Reuters: “We warn people in every district to evacuate immediately because there is a possibility of a tsunami.”
Phuket and Phangnga are provinces popular with tourists and were among those hit by the 2004 Indian Ocena tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people in Thailand.
Categories: Asia
Tsunami watch lifted after two big earthquakes
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) — A massive earthquake struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra Wednesday afternoon, triggering a tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean, which was later canceled.
The quake struck about 434 kilometers (270 miles) southwest of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province, and had a magnitude of 8.6, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It took place at a depth of 23 kilometers (14 miles).
A second large quake, with a magnitude of 8.2, occurred off the west coast of Sumatra about two hours later, the USGS said.
Gary Gibson from the Seismology Research Center in Melbourne, Australia, said the location of the second quake reduces the possibility of a tsunami.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/11/world/asia/indonesia-earthquake/index.html?hpt=hp_t1