Quake rattles Indonesia, panic waves in India

Two massive quakes shook Sumatra in Indonesia yesterday triggering a tsunami alert in 28 countries including India and panic all across the countryrsquos east coastThe tremors caused by quakes measuring 85 and 82 on the Richter scale sent tens of thousands scurrying out of highrise buildings and houses in several Indian cities from Guwahati and Kolkata to Chennai and KochiThe first quake off the Indonesian coast at 208 pm IST swayed buildings in Aceh province and a while later the second temblor struck bringing back memories of the 2004 killer tsunami PicAFP In Chennai 16 ships were hurriedly asked to leave the port All cargo handling was stopped A high alert was announced at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadursquos Thirunvelveli district about 650 km from Chennai Many parts of Tamil Nadu Kerala and Karnataka were shaken Kolkatarsquos Metro operations were shut shortly after the tremors Men and women rushed out of offices as fear gripped the city the panic captured on CCTV cameras Many scampered down several flights of stairs to get on to the roads Some buildings on Park Street developed cracksu00a0The story was the same in Chennai and Bangalore ldquoOh my God The tremors lasted 3035 seconds and everyone came running outrdquo said Vishnu Ram of Chennai ldquoThe tsunami alert is scaryrdquo For a long time people remained on the streets of cities till panic subsided Chennairsquos Marina beach mdash one of the worldrsquos longest mdash was quickly emptied of people by police In Kerala legislator Abdul Khader said he was asleep on the fifth floor of the legislatorrsquos hostel when the ground shook Like thousands of others he too fled to safety Andhra Pradesh CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed all nine coastal districts to be on high alert and take help from the army and navy if needed Panic was also reported from Patna and other places The home ministry asked authorities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and all the east coast states to issue a coastal alert ldquoThey have been asked to advise fishermen not to venture out in the seardquo the ministry said However in India experts quickly ruled out a tsunami threat but fishermen were warned against venturing into the sea Bruce Presgrave of the US Geological Survey told BBC that yesterday39s quake moved the earth horizontally rather than vertically and so did not displace large volumes of water IAF navy relief teams on stage one alert The country yesterday kept its airforce and navy teams ready to address any eventuality in case a tsunami hit coastal statesu00a0According to officials the Indian Air Force IAF had rushed two Hercules C130J transports to Port Blair Besides one IL76 heavy freighter was kept on standby to fly from Chandigarh to Chennaiu00a0The IAF had also put on alert its southern command in Thiruvananthapuram and triservices command in Port Blair The officials said the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam is on ldquostage one alertrdquo which is the highest degree of alertnessu00a0Disaster relief teams of the navy were ready to embark on ships with relief material High alert at Tamil Nadu Nplants A high alert was sounded at Tamil Nadu39s Kudankulam and Kalpakkam nuclear plants Officials at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tirunelveli said they were on alert after the warning notice from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services The situation was similar in Kalpakkam where NPCIL39s Madras Atomic Power Station is locatedu00a0