Undersea quake hits Sumatra

AN undersea earthquake that hit near the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday sent people fleeing from their homes in panic, but the tremor was not strong enough to generate a tsunami, seismologists and meteorologists said.

The epicentre of the 6.8-magnitude quake was about 70 miles south-west of Padang, a city in western Sumatra, at a depth of nearly 19 miles, the US Geological Survey said.

“Many people in Padang are panicking,” said Yusuf, an official from Indonesia’s Geophysics and Meteorology Agency.