Thailand’s disaster warning centre issued a tsunami alert for the resort island of Phuket and five nearby provinces, warning officials along the Andaman coast to prepare for a potential wave, but lifted it about an hour later. The meteorology office’s Suharjono told AFP that there had been no tsunami potential as the quake’s epicentre was close to the coastline rather than far out at sea.

Zainul Tahar, the head of Aceh’s search and rescue office, said that he had spoken to officials at the port authority in Sinabang, the town most likely to have been affected by the quake. “I was told that there was no damage, although there was mass panic in town,” he told AFP, adding that he had also contacted authorities in Meulaboh, opposite the island on Aceh’s mainland, and no damage was reported there.

In Aceh’s capital Banda Aceh, the quake was felt for about two minutes and people initially ran outside in panic, but quickly calmed down, an AFP correspondent said. ElShinta radio also quoted listeners as saying panic had hit the population in North Sumatra’s capital of Medan, where people rushed out of buildings.