A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit India's southern Nicobar Islands late on Sunday, triggering panic in the islands and a tsunami warning in Thailand, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or destruction. The earthquake was felt and triggered alarm in several parts of the zone that was struck on Dec. 26 by the quake-spawned Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed at least 178,953 people in 11 countries and left 49,616 missing, with most of them presumed dead, AP reported. A quake also jolted people from their sleep Sunday night in Indonesia's Aceh province, and prompted residents of at least one Sri Lankan village on the coast to flee to a higher ground, fearing killer waves were on their way. No tsunami came. and no injuries or damage were reported in countries close to the epicenter of Sunday's quake. The epicenter of Sunday's Indian quake, which hit at around 9 p.m. local time, was near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that lie between India and Thailand, said I. B. A. Rao, a duty officer in New Delhi's Meteorology Department. The quake also jolted southern India's Tamil Nadu state, where the Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 8,000 people.
