Tectonic aftershocks jolted west coast of Indonesian Aceh province for three consecutive times early Thursday morning, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, ANTARA quoted head of Mata Ie Geophysics Agency Syahnan as saying. Syahnan said the first aftershock measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale struck at 2.49 a.m. and was followed by the second one, 5.5 on the Richter scale, at 3.12 a.m. and the third measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale at 4.02 a.m. local time. The second quake which was the strongest one was felt by the people in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar district because it lasted longer the others. On Sunday evening the province was also rocked by a tectonic aftershock measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale. On December 26, 2004, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami hit Aceh Province and Nias (North Sumatra), and killed more than 170,000 people. An Indian earth scientist recently said that increased seismic activities have been recorded in the past one month in the Java-Sumatra-Andaman region of South East Asia, indicating the possibility of a major disaster in the near future.
