Tsunami alert lifted

"The National Disaster Warning Centre has investigated and analysed more information, and found that there was no tsunami that could affect Thailand," the centre said in a statement.

"Therefore we want to lift our alert warning as of 4:40pm," the statement said.

 The alert was issued for the six provinces on the Andaman Sea where the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, when 5,400 people were killed in Thailand. About half of the victims were foreign holidaymakers.

The quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 7.6, struck under the island of Simeulue off the western coast of Sumatra island.

The US Geological Survey said the undersea quake, which had preliminary magnitude about 7.6, struck at 3:08 pm (0808 GMT) some 312 kilometres west-southwest of the North Sumatra capital Medan, at a depth of 34 kilometres.

The tremor can be felt in island of Phuket as well as in Bangkok. People in the highrise buildings on Silom and Sathorn roads also felt the tremor.

Agencies  reported that minutes after the quake hit, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a bulletin saying parts of the Sumatran coast closest to the epicentre were at risk of a possible tsunami.

Japan's meteorological agency said India's Andaman and Nicobar island chain was also at risk.

The quake was felt across much of western and northern Sumatra island, witnesses said.

Many people fled their homes, but there was no immediate reports of damage or injury.

A magnitude-9 quake there in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them on Sumatra. Three months later, an 8.7 quake further down the fault killed 1,000 on the islands of Nias and Simeulue.

by the Nation, Agencies