31 Dec 2008

Earthquake off Sumatra

10:01 am on 31 December 2008

A magnitude 5.9 quake has been recorded off Indonesia's Sumatra island.

The US Geological Survey reported the quake was centered 135 km west of Bengkulu on Sumatra, at 2.49am on Wednesday (1949 GMT on Tuesday). It was 10 km deep.

There was no immediate tsunami warning and the quake was unlikely to trigger one at that magnitude.

The earthquake was initially reported at magnitude 6.2 and later verified at 5.9.

Northern Sumatra was devastated by a tsunami on 26 December 2004 following an 8.4 earthquake in the Indian Ocean which killed more than 230,000 in the region.