COLOMBO (NewsRadio); An earthquake of magnitude-7.3 has struck west of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.
According to the National Tsunami Early Warning Centre, the earthquake struck at a depth of 10km off the Sumatra Island at around 01.30am.
The Centre issuing a statement said there is no tsunami threat to Sri Lanka at present. It also declared the coastal areas of Sri Lanka as safe.
The Centre said the declaration has been made in consultation with relevant national and international agencies.
Meanwhile, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) earlier pegged the quake at magnitude-6.9.
At 84-kilometres deep, the quake triggered an initial tsunami warning but it has since been lifted, the country’s geophysics agency (BMKG) said.
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said authorities are collecting data from the islands nearest the epicentre, off the western shore of Sumatra, spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.
The agency asked local authorities to immediately instruct residents in affected area to stay away from shores.
In Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, the quake was felt strongly and some people have moved away from the beaches, said Mr Muhari, who was in Padang.
“Although the quake was pretty strong here, damages are not visible yet,” he said.
An official of the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra, told local news outlets that locals were conducting self-evacuation and heading to higher ground, but there were no reports of casualties yet.
Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes, straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where different plates of the Earth’s crust meet.
