There were no immediate reports of any major damage to property or loss of lives.
A tsunami alert was sounded in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and tremors were felt in southern and eastern parts of the country on Wednesday sending panicked people racing into the streets following a major earthquake that struck Indonesia.
There were no immediate reports of any major damage to property or loss of lives.
The tsunami warning issued after the first massive earthquake off Sumatra coast was, however, withdrawn by the government a few hours after it was put in place as a threat of killer waves hitting coastal areas eased.
But a constant vigil was being maintained amid reports of aftershocks in some parts of the country which put authorities on their toes. Coastal districts were especially put on high alert.
Operations at Chennai Port were suspended, Metro operations in Kolkata were briefly curtailed and fishermen in coastal states were asked to return to land, as people in the Little Andamans, southern group of islands including the Great Nicobar and Campbell Bay were evacuated. The southern islands were the closest to the epicentre of the quake.
As the temblor reviving painful memories of the 2004 tsunami in the coastal states triggered by a powerful quake in Indonesia gave anxious moments, the Indian military put their aircraft and warships in a state of high alert for carrying out relief and rescue operations. The 2004 tsunami claimed tens of thousands of lives in the region.
Six teams of National Disaster Response Force were also kept in readiness at Chennai and an equal number moved to Hindon airport in the national capital.
Operations at Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) in Kalpakkam near Chennai continued to function normally though there was a move to halt operations following the Tsunami warning. The nuclear plant is however on high alert.
People rushed out of houses and high rise office buildings in panic in cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati where tremors were felt. According to reports, some buildings in Kolkata developed minor cracks.
Panic-stricken people in Andhra Pradesh's coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam rushed out of their homes as soon as they felt the tremor.
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