JAKARTA, March 28: A massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Monday night killing dozens of people, but there were no immediate reports of a tsunami, residents and officials said. The epicentre, off the coast, was very close to that of the Dec 26 quake which triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Asia. Monday’s late night earthquake spread panic across western Indonesia, Sri Lanka and coastal parts of Malaysia and Thailand. Sirens wailed and tens of thousands of people were evacuated after tsunami warnings while others drove or ran from the coast to higher ground.

There were no signs of a tsunami up to three-and-a-half hours after the 1609GMT quake, but it killed dozens of people and destroyed hundreds of homes in Gunungsitoli, the main town on Indonesia’s Nias island, a local official told Metro TV. “I can guarantee that dozens have died,” Agus Mendrofa, the deputy mayor of the town, said by telephone.

“Gunungsitoli is now like a dead town. The situation here is in extreme panic.” A police officer told Reuters he had seen three bodies and that many others were trapped in damaged buildings.

“The earthquake was massive, it’s still shaking now,” said A. Nainggolan, the deputy police chief in Gunungsitoli. Nias, off the western coast of Sumatra and about 1,400km northwest of Jakarta, is a remote island famed as a surfing paradise.

The Pacific tsunami warning centre said the quake had the potential to cause a ‘widely destructive tsunami’ and authorities should take ‘immediate action,’ including evacuating coastlines within 1,000km of the epicentre. One official said any possible tsunami could be headed towards the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

But the centre added: “Authorities can assume the danger has passed if no tsunami waves are observed in the region near the epicentre within three hours of the earthquake.”

Meanwhile, a US seismologist in Los Angeles said there was a ‘100 per cent’ chance of a tsunami threatening Indian Ocean nations following the massive quake off the coast of Indonesia.

“My personal view is that a tsunami has a 100 per cent chance of happening,” US Geological Survey earthquake expert Kerry Sieh told journalists.

QUICK REACTIONS: Unlike in the immediate aftermath of the December quake, reactions were quick across nations on the rim of the Indian Ocean, although it was close to or past midnight in the region.

Tens of thousands of people across northern and western Sumatra fled their homes, TV and residents said.

Thailand urged people living along parts of its west coast, including tourists on the resort island of Phuket, to evacuate while Malaysia issued a warning to coastal residents.

“About 3,000 to 4,000 tourists and locals have been evacuated from Patong and Kamala beaches to higher places,” Phuket deputy governor Wichai Buapradit told Reuters.

“We’ve told them to take their valuable belongings and to go to higher places,” he added.

Authorities in India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, north of the epicentre, issued a preliminary tsunami warning as did the federal government in New Delhi.

—Agencies