MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Quake panics Asia; 2,000 feared dead

A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia's west coast late Monday, killing scores of people whose homes collapsed on them and spreading panic across the Indian Ocean that another killer tsunami was on the way. Indonesia's vice president predicted up to 2,000 deaths

Almost all the deaths reported after the 8.7-magnitude quake were on Indonesia's Nias island, a popular surfing spot off Sumatra island's west coast and close to the epicenter. Police were pulling children's' bodies out of the rubble of collapsed houses, and a fire was reportedly raging in one town.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck about 19 miles under the seabed, some 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra island. It was centered just 110 miles southeast of December's 9.0-magnitude temblor ? the world's most powerful in 40 years.

Monday's wallop, although very powerful, was but a fraction of the earlier quake. In explosive power, December's quake was equal to 100 million pounds of TNT; it caused the seabed to spring up as much as 60 feet.

Terrified of a disaster of equal proportions, sirens sounded throughout the region as authorities issued tsunami alerts for six countries after the quake struck at 11:06 p.m. as many people were sleeping.

In Sri Lanka, warning sirens blared along the island nation's east coast and President Chandrika Kumaratunga urged people to evacuate immediately to higher ground.

In Malaysia, residents fled their shaking apartments and hotels.

The quake was felt as far away as Singapore and the Thai capital, Bangkok, more than 435 miles from the epicenter.

Officials said after the December disaster that a tsunami early warning system could have saved many lives. Such a system exists in the Pacific but has not been established in the Indian Ocean. Japan and the United States had planned to start providing tsunami warnings to countries around the Indian Ocean this month as a stopgap measure until the region establishes its own alert system.

But for residents of ravaged Banda Aceh, no warning system was needed after they felt the quake and headed for higher ground.

At the city's biggest refugee camp, a voice on loudspeaker later announced that there was no tsunami. This time, the voice said, people could return to their tents.

Based on the size of the earthquake, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration initially urged residents within 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of the epicenter to evacuate coastal regions.

But no tsunamis were reported along Indonesia's island coasts, while India, Malaysia and Thailand canceled tsunami warnings early Tuesday.

The quake's magnitude was variously reported by monitoring agencies as 8.7 and 8.5. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the former after initially putting the magnitude at 8.2; the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported the latter