Strong quake rocks Indonesia's Aceh

Jan 11, 2012, 4:11 GMT

Banda Aceh, Indonesia - An magnitude-7.1 earthquake rocked Indonesia's Aceh province on Wednesday, with no immediate reports of casualties and damage, officials said.

The national earthquake centre issued a tsunami warning after the quake at 1:37 am (1837 GMT Tuesday) but lifted it an hour later, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said.

The epicentre was 420 kilometres south-west of provincial capital Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, at a depth of 29 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

'We have not received reports of damage or casualties,' National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Nugroho said.

Aceh was 'safe,' said Sahnan, the head of the provincial meteorology and geophysics agency, who like many Indonesians goes by only name.

Residents in the coastal areas of Banda Aceh fled to higher ground, fearing a tsunami.

'People woke up and ran out of their house in panic,' said Imran Surya, a Banda Aceh resident. 'These people have seen a tsunami before.'

Aceh was the region hardest hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, with about 170,000 people killed.

That tsunami was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Sumatra, and left an estimated total of 230,000 people dead in several countries.

Sahnan said he wanted to know why six tsunami early warning sirens around Aceh Besar district, including Banda Aceh, failed to activate despite the tsunami warning.

'This is the job of the local government to activate the sirens,' he said.

Iskandar, head of the provincial Disaster Control Coordinating Agency, said his office did not activate the sirens because the epicentre of the quake was far from Banda Aceh.

'The locations where the sirens are installed were not at risk,' he said.