Alerts off after midnight tsunami scare

Thailand cancelled a tsunami alert on Monday following a quake off India’s eastern coast and said people could now return home.“We...

Thailand cancelled a tsunami alert on Monday following a quake off India’s eastern coast and said people could now return home.

“We’ve found no tsunami that could endanger people’s lives or damage property therefore we now call off the alert,” Plodprasob Surasawadee, head of the National Disaster Warning Centre, said in a message broadcast on all television networks.

In Indonesia’s Aceh, further to the South of the region where the quake struck and the area worst hit by massive waves on December 26, an official said there was a possibility of a tsunami reaching the province. “I have called radio, police and local government about this so they can warn residents to be careful, but I don’t know whether this information has gone to the public or not,” said Syahnan, head of the meteorology and geophysics agency in Aceh.

Earlier, Sri Lanka said it faced no threat of a tsunami though mild tremors were felt on several parts of the island nation, which was one of the worst hit countries in last year’s tsunami. “There is no need for us to issue a tsunami alert,” Met department chief G.H.P. Dharmaratne said. “We have checked with the us Pacific Tsunami Centre too and they have confirmed we have nothing to fear.”