New Delhi: 1. A little after 2 pm, a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck the Aceh province in Indonesia today. Tremors were felt in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and India.
2. A tsunami warning was issued for 28 nations including India.
3. At 4.25 pm, a strong 8.2 aftershock triggered fresh tremors in India in cities like Chennai and Kolkata.
4. Though the entire eastern coast was put on alert, the main focus of concern was the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
5. By 4.47 pm, air force planes were kept ready for relief operations. People were asked to move away from the coast and the government evacuated some people from South Andaman as a precaution. The Indian Air Force had kept ready for relief ops; six teams of 40 people each from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) had been positioned at Hindon near Delhi, and at Chennai and two C-130 J heavy-lift aircrafts of the Indian Air Force were prepared to leave for Port Blair with NDRF teams and 10 tonnes of relief material.
6. By 5.52 pm, India had withdrawn its tsunami watch.
7. Experts said both quakes were geologically different than the one that spawned the 2004 tsunami, occurring horizontally, with the tectonic plates sliding against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.
8. The giant 9.1-magnitude quake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 230,000 people in about a dozen nations.
9. During the tsunami alert, Chennai officials tried to evacuate beaches but were largely unsuccessful. Kolkata stopped its metro trains for an hour. Nine districts of coastal Andhra Pradesh were on high alert.
10. Today, the tremors were reported in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and the southern part of Chennai. The tremors lasted for a few seconds. In Bhubaneshwar, people were seen running out of their homes and offices. No damage has been reported so far.