Wednesday, 12 September 2007
A powerful earthquake has struck off the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, triggering tsunami alerts across the Indian Ocean.
The tremor had a magnitude of 7.9, according to Indonesian monitors.
There are reports of buildings collapsing in towns on the west coast of Sumatra, but it is not yet clear whether there are casualties.
A massive undersea earthquake sparked a tsunami that killed more than 130,000 people in Indonesia in December 2004.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami alert for the entire Indian Ocean region following the latest quake.
It says it is not known whether a tsunami has been generated.
Wednesday's earthquake struck at 1810 (1110 GMT), about 15km (nine miles) under the sea, some 100km (60 miles) south-west of the city of Bengkulu, the US Geological Survey said.
The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta says this was the most powerful earthquake in Indonesia since the one which caused the Asian tsunami in 2004, and was dangerously shallow.
She says quakes on this scale are rare and memories of 2004 has made the country terrified of a repeat.
Indonesia, part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire", is frequently shaken by earth tremors.
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