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29-03-2005 The Scotsman Tens of thousands flee as quake sparks tsunami warning By Gethin Chamberlain and Alastair Jamieson A MASSIVE earthquake hit south Asia yesterday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes amid fears of another devastating tsunami. About 300 people were feared dead on the Indonesian island of Nias, near the epicentre of the quake. The earthquake struck off the Sumatran mainland at 5:09pm UK time yesterday. People fled coastal areas in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, fearing a repeat of the Boxing Day disaster which killed more than 174,000. Although smaller than the 9.3-magnitude shock which triggered the December tsunami, yesterday's tremor, which registered 8.7 on the Richter scale, damaged buildings in several areas, leaving an unknown number of people trapped. The quake struck offshore between the Sumatran cities of Padang and Medan, and the Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics Office estimated that it lasted three minutes, causing power cuts and mass panic. It was felt as far away as Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Thailand. But fears of a repeat of the destruction brought by the tsunami three months ago passed within hours of the initial shocks. Early reports of damage and casualties were confined to Nias. The island, a renowned surfing spot, was badly hit by the 26 December earthquake and subsequent tsunami. At least 340 Nias residents perished and 10,000 were left homeless in that disaster. After yesterday's quake, about 70 per cent of houses and buildings in the market town of Gunungsitoli on the island had collapsed, said police sergeant Zulkifli Sirait. "We still cannot count the number of casualties or the number of collapsed buildings because it is dark here," he said. "It is possible that hundreds of people trapped in the collapsed buildings died." Local government officials later gave the number of people killed on the island as 296. In the Thai island resort of Patong, on Phuket Island, there was panic. Tremors were felt for "about a minute", according to one tourist who said, in a text message to a friend that "lots of people have been fleeing to the hills". "People are very frightened and there's no real warning system," the holidaymaker said. There had been conflicting advice on the dangers posed by the earthquake, with no one quite sure how damaging it was going to be. The Sri Lankan authorities issued a statement warning of an impending "natural disaster". The Pacific tsunami warning centre urged the immediate evacuation of coastlines within 600 miles of the epicentre, warning that the earthquake - 880 miles north-west of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta - had the potential to cause a "widely destructive tsunami". The centre said it would be safe to assume that the danger had passed if no tsunami waves were observed in the region near the epicentre within three hours of the earthquake, although there was also speculation that any tsunami that was triggered might head towards the African coast. The centre later reported that a minor tsunami had been experienced at the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. David Booth, a senior seismologist with the British Geological Survey, said the latest tremor, which happened close to the epicentre of the December quake, was an aftershock from that event. "There is a high probability of a tsunami occurring, but because the earthquake is of such a shallow depth and is offshore, it would be on a much smaller scale than the Boxing Day disaster," he said. Samith Dhammasaroj, who has been charged with setting up a tsunami warning system in Thailand, urged families to flee. "Many people along the west coast must be extremely careful," he said. "Please evacuate to higher places now." In Banda Aceh, the Indonesian town worst hit by the Boxing Day tsunami, an aid worker said in a phone call that thousands of people had fled their homes and headed for higher ground after feeling what he described as "a very damn big earthquake". Tirana Hassan, an aid worker with Save the Children in Banda Aceh, said people had initially fled when tremors hit the area about an hour previously. "As I look out now, the situation is mostly calm and people have returned to their houses," she said. "When this one [tremor] struck, we were wondering if it would go on, and it did go on for quite a period of time. There were quite large movements and that's why we decided to leave our residences. "For those people who were here on 26 December, of course it put a scare in them ... [but] there hasn't been anything more since then - so far everything is fine." Ravi Prassad, a journalist in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, said people had been told of the possibility of a tsunami and were prepared to evacuate if necessary. "Last time the tsunami was a great surprise, people were not prepared for it and there was no early warning," he said. "Now it won't be a problem for people to take shelter, to move to higher ground, and there are shelters for them to move to. This time they are more alert. If the wave hits anywhere close to Sri Lanka, they would be informed." A spokesman for the Disasters Emergency Committee, which acts on behalf of the 12 British charities involved in the aid effort following the Boxing Day tsunami, said: "Our hope is that people are a lot more prepared for this sort of event now than they were before the last time and there is increased awareness about the risks of building close to the coastlines. "In some countries, such as Sri Lanka, there have been moves to restrict building projects that are close to the coastline." Victims of the first earthquake are still trying to piece together their lives. Billions of pounds of aid have so far made little impact on the worst-affected areas. The Indonesian government is due to issue a master plan for reconstruction this weekend. But it announced last week that more consultations were needed before it could start work in earnest. In Thailand, where rebuilding progress is similarly slow, officials last week submitted a two-year recovery plan. In Sri Lanka, there has been widespread criticism of the government's response to the disaster. Meanwhile, John Ryan, of the Scottish-based International Rescue Corps, said a team rescuers was on standby in the wake of yesterday's quake.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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