Residents of Indonesia's Sumatra island are no strangers to seismic upheaval, but Wednesday's powerful earthquake and aftershocks sent residents scrambling out of their homes in panic nonetheless. Families hugged one another, some cried, while others recited Quranic verses hoping for divine protection.
Marhamah, a resident of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, said she and her family did not leave the house when the first quake measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale struck at 3.38 local time (0838 GMT). Then an equally strong aftershock hit about two hours later. "We ran as fast as we could," she said. "People cried, some running to the hills, while some men went to the mosque to recite prayers (in Arabic)." "I thought we would have a repeat of the tsunami in 2004," she said. Much of Banda Aceh was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which was triggered by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake. The disaster killed 170,000 people in Aceh alone.
Wednesday's quake also knocked out electricity and telecommunication networks, leaving much of the city in darkness as dusk fell. Acehnese formed long queues for fuel at local petrol stations. "We're afraid we'll run out fuel and we can't go home," said Armia Adi, who lined up at a fuel pump in the Lampeunurut area.
The quake triggered tsunami warnings for countries ranging from Indonesia to Thailand, India, Australia, the Seychelles, Somalia, Oman and South Africa. In Thailand, tsunami sirens were activated and hundreds of tourists evacuated in Patong and other popular beaches on Phuket Island, 700 kilometres south of Bangkok.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled the warning for the Indian Ocean hours after, and Indonesia lifted the tsunami warning shortly after that. "I'm still traumatised by the 2004 tsunami," said 55-year-old Mariam, who fled to the hilly area of Mata'i in Banda Aceh with other residents.
"I won't return until I'm sure it's safe," she said. There was no word from officials whether it was safe for residents to go home, they said. An elderly man died outside a mosque in Banda Aceh, apparently of a heart attack, as residents scrambled to reach higher ground. The quake was also felt strongly in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.
"I was in the hotel having a shower when the quake struck," Timbang Pangaribuan told Elshinta radio from Medan. "It was so strong we all ran out of the hotel in panic," he said. "I saw one person jump out of the window, and he was injured." Meanwhile, residents in the coastal city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, flocked to a evacuation zone after tsunami-warning sirens sounded, television showed.
They came in cars, motorcycles and on foot, causing a massive traffic jam. A powerful earthquake killed more than 1,100 people in West Sumatra in September 2009, with Padang one of the worst-hit areas. In October 2010, a tsunami and the magnitude-7.7 quake off Sumatra that triggered it killed at least 431 people and displaced more than 20,000.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from Wednesday's quake. "We are in co-ordination with authorities in Aceh and things are under control," he said. Foreign and local scientists who have studied Sumatra's fault line have predicted a giant earthquake in the West Sumatra area during the next three decades that would generate a tsunami equal to the 2004 disaster.