Asia Dive News : Thailand lifts tsunami alert despite large quake

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit India's Andaman and southern Nicobar Islands late Sunday 24th, triggering panic in the islands and a tsunami warning in Thailand, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

    Thailand invoked a tsunami warning s ystem late Sunday after a powerful earthquake struck in the nearby Nicobar Islands, but ended the alert after it became clear there was no risk of destructive waves hitting the coast.

    Plodprasop Suraswadi, head of the National Disaster Warning Centre, formally lifted the tsunami warning about 90 minutes after it had been issued in national television broadcasts.

    "Within 20 minutes after we received the information and after analysing it, we made an announcement to everybody in the coastline within half an hour through all the media, first the departments and all the top officials were informed, starting from the Prime Minister down."

    The earthquakes epicenter was in the islands which lie in the Indian Ocean between India and Thailand.

    The quake also jolted southern India's Tamil Nadu state, where the December 26 Asian tsunami last year killed more than 8,000 people.

    In India, officials quickly offered reassurance.

    The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a BULLETIN, saying authorities can assume the danger of tsunami has passed if no tsunami waves are observed near the epicentre within an hour of the earthquake.

Source: Xinhua