Tsunami Fears Ease in Indonesia

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) _ Thai officials withdrew a tsunami warning early Tuesday, saying the threat of a killer wave from a huge earthquake in the Indian Ocean has probably passed.

"We are now telling people that they can return to their homes. We believe it's safe now. We believe that if it (a tsunami) would have happened, it should have happened by now,'' Chalermchai Aekkantrong, deputy director of Thailand's meteorological department, told the local ITV television network Tuesday.

Chalermchai said his agency has withdrawn a tsunami warning issued earlier.

The quake occurred at 11:09 p.m. Monday local time (1609 GMT) off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Hong Kong Observatory said the quake was centered about 410 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, which was devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 8.7 and occurred at a depth of nearly 30 kilometers (19 miles).

The earthquake late Monday raised fears of another tsunami like the one that devastated coastal areas across southern Asia on Dec. 26 and claimed more than 174,000 lives.

Thai officials immediately warned of a possible tsunami and urged residents of southern Thailand's Andaman coast to move to higher ground away from the sea. Thousands heeded the warnings, including in the provinces of Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi, which were slammed by December's tsunami.

Earlier, Smith Thammasaroj, a former chief of the country's meteorological department, told local television Channel 9 that it appeared that southern Thailand would be spared from any possible tsunami from the quake.

He said if there were any big waves generated by the earthquake, they would not hit southern Thailand because the quake's energy was directed south.

"I think we wait another 45 minutes now to be sure but it is not likely that the wave will hit southern Thailand,'' he said.

Smith heads the government's commission on preparing for future tsunamis.

Related Story: Officials Say Tsunami Threat has Passed

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) _ A major earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia late Monday, sending residents in several countries fleeing in panic in fear that it would cause the region's second tsunami disaster within four months.

But fears of another catastrophe eased within hours, as officials in countries closest to the quake's epicenter said they had received no reports of waves striking their coasts three hours after the earthquake hit.

"It seems this earthquake did not trigger a tsunami,'' said Prihar Yadi, a scientist with the Indonesia Geophysics Agency. "If it had, the tsunami would have hit the coastline of Sumatra by now. And if there's no tsunami on the coastline near the epicenter of the quake, there will not be one heading in the other direction.''

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• Tsunami Special Report