Strong earthquake hits Nicobar islands

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit India’s southern Nicobar Islands today.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or destruction, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The epicentre of the earthquake was in the islands which lie in the Indian Ocean between India and Thailand, meteorologists said.

The quake, which hit at 9:12pm local time (4.22pm Iristh time), also jolted the southern Indian state of Madras, it said.

The islands were one of the areas battered by the December 26 Asian tsunami, which killed at least 178,000 people in 11 countries.

Thai authorities issued a tsunami warning for the Indian Ocean.

“There can be a local tsunami, but no such activity has been noticed in the region,” said S K Bhatnagar, the deputy director-general of India’s Meteorology Department in New Delhi.

Samir Acharya, head of a non-governmental organisation in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said: ”Everything is fine. I haven’t heard of any damage.”

“My driver ran up to my house and said some people had come out on the roads,” said Acharya, who works with the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology.