Powerful quake hits Indonesia, local agency issues tsunami warning
19:37, 2 March 2016
JAKARTA. KAZINFORM - A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia on Wednesday evening, prompting the local meteorological agency to issue a tsunami warning, Kyodo reports.
The quake, which the United States Geological Survey estimated to register a magnitude of 7.9, struck off the west coast of Sumatra Island at 7:49 p.m. local time, with no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
USGS said the epicenter of the earthquake was some 800 kilometers southwest of the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang, at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km.
Immediately following the quake, the Jakarta-based Meteorological Climatology and Geophysics Agency issued a tsunami warning for the provinces of West Sumatra, North Sumatra, Aceh, Bengkulu and Lampung, all on Sumatra Island.
A Kyodo reporter in Padang said that people had been seen panicking and running for higher ground.