[size=75:30gywsr7]BBC 7 April 2010

7.8 Earthquake Shakes Sumatra

Earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale rocked Sumatra Island around, Wednesday morning and caused panic residents.

Climatology Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) had announced the tsunami hazard, but so far not reported any serious damage.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the quake’s epicenter was 60 km southeast of Sinabang City, Simelue Island, NAD Province with a depth of 46km.

“So far there has been no reports about casualties or infrastructure damage and the situation was under control,” said Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf told the AP news agency.

Although so far no casualties, but at least it happened five times aftershock measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale

The earthquake occurred at dawn prayer before the worship that makes people panic. Banda Aceh, some residents say they feel the vibrations with high intensity for about a minute long.

As quoted from the AFP news agency, most residents are still traumatized by the tsunami experience in 2004, immediately leave their homes into places higher. Tsunami warning issued BMKG withdrawn two hours after the earthquake.

Residents in Sinabang on Simeulue and Gunung Sitoli, Nias trickle into the streets heading to the plateau to avoid the danger of a tsunami.

“The news about the tsunami making residents who live on the beach in panic. They used motorcycles and cars and went to the plateau. The situation is really messy but I do not see anyone get hurt,” said Effendi, a resident of Nias.

Simeulue district government spokesman, Abdul Karim said so far recorded 11 people were injured one of them badly injured.

“Some buildings suffered minor damage such as broken glass. The houses are damaged residents reported heavy but we do not know the amount,” said Abdul Karim when contacted the BBC.

He added that the people have returned to normal activity and economic activity had been going back.

The panic also occurs in Medan, North Sumatra and several other towns in the province. While the flow of electricity in Medan and Banda Aceh is lost but the cell phone service was still operating.

Meanwhile, residents say the city Sibolga tremor occurred about one minute and resulted in a number of electricity poles collapsed.

In 2004, Aceh was hit by the tsunami triggered an earthquake measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale. That disaster killed at least 230,000 people in some countries.