An aerial view of an earthquake-hit area of Nias island. A huge earthquake off this northwest Indonesian island killed at least 430 people, and possibly several thousand. NIAS ISLAND, Indonesia (AFP) - A huge earthquake off this northwest Indonesian island killed at least 430 people, and possibly several thousand, and triggered tsunami warnings which caused panic across the Indian Ocean.
The epicenter of the quake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale was just 200 miles (320 kilometres) from that of the December 26 quake which sent giant waves crashing into 12 nations, killing over 273,000 people.
Indonesian officials said at least 430 people had been confirmed dead on Nias and Simeulue islands off Sumatra. But Vice President Yusuf Kalla told the BBC that reports from Nias indicated 1,000 to 2,000 people had died.
The undersea quake struck Monday night about 200 kilometers off the west coast of Sumatra and prompted Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, among others, to issue warnings of imminent tsunamis.
Alerts rang out on television and radio, while police and local residents tried to shepherd people to safety away from the coast towards high ground.
But the giant tsunamis never materialised and three hours after the quake Indonesia and Thailand gave the all-clear. Sri Lanka and India followed several hours later.
While the region was spared a new tsunami horror, the earthquake caused widespread destruction on Nias, an island of 700,000 people which is popular with surfers.
Budi Atmaji Adiputro, chief of staff at the National Coordinating Disaster Relief Agency, said 330 people had been found dead on the island and more bodies were expected to turn up under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
"I expect the number to increase because to collect bodies we have to sift through the rubble," he told AFP.
The head of the health office in Sumatra's Aceh province, Mulya Hasjmy, told AFP that a disaster taskforce in Simeulue had accounted for 100 dead.
Survivors -- frail, weeping and swathed in bloody bandages -- described how they were trapped by falling rubble when the giant tremor struck.
Some 20 people, mostly suffering from broken bones, deep cuts and bruises were flown from Nias aboard two UN helicopters to the Sumatra island city of Sibolga, where they were transferred to hospital.
"I was fast asleep when the earthquake occurred but I woke up just in time to escape from the crumbling roof of my dormitory," said 20-year-old student Serasi Hulu, who suffered a broken arm and fingers.
Pale, bruised and visibly weak from his ordeal, Hulu said he had tried to dash from his room but was pinned down by falling masonry.
"Before I managed to get out of the house, part of the roof fell on me and I was trapped for several hours along with two of my high school mates," he told AFP. "I believe they may already have died."
Oxfam International sent an assessment team to Nias by helicopter from Banda Aceh in the tsunami-stricken province of Aceh on Sumatra.
"The devastation is obvious as soon as you land," said Alessandra Villas-Boas, a member of the team, which found widespread damage to houses and infrastructure.
"Bodies are being pulled from the rubble as I speak," she said, adding that the island's main town of Gunung Sitoli appeared to have been one of the worst hit areas.
Some 20,000 people in the town were without water, the electricity grid was also out of order and roads were badly damaged, the team said.
"We had just ended the emergency relief in Aceh and Nias, we were taken by surprise again by the earthquake in Nias and Simeulue," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said after an emergency cabinet meeting in Jakarta.
Condolences and relief offers flooded in from overseas.
Singapore said it had dispatched military helicopters and a team of medical and rescue workers to Nias, while Japan offered to send relief goods, paramedics and troops.
China announced it would donate 300,000 dollars to Indonesia.
Yudhoyono delayed a planned trip to Australia and was himself making plans to visit Nias. Canberra promised one million dollars (774,000 US) in aid.
A military official said a three-metre wave had smashed into a port on Simeulue, causing extensive damage and unconfirmed reports of casualties.
The earthquake evoked bitter memories of the December disaster in which a 9.0-magnitude quake triggered waves 15 metres (50 feet) high that roared across the Indian Ocean at speeds of up to 700 kilometres per hour.
Those waves killed more than 273,000 people including over 220,000 in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri Lanka, 10,000 in India and 5,000 in Thailand.
Some 10 billion dollars in aid was pledged to affected countries, and governments promised to create a high-tech tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean by mid-2006.
Although no formal warning system was yet in place, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the International Tsunami Information Center contacted countries around the Indian Ocean immediately after detecting the huge quake.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the makeshift warning system had worked well.
"Although our warning system is not yet complete, we managed to alert people in enough time for them to seek safety," he said.
Kerry Sieh, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey, said the quake was one of the top 10 most powerful in the last century.
Tremors shook many parts of Sumatra for three minutes and rocked the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Singapore where people fled high-rise buildings.
"When the earthquake happened, I rode my motorcycle to the airport because I was very afraid the tsunami would hit again," said university student Heri in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's devastated Aceh province.
In northwestern Sri Lanka people ran to temples and churches where bells were rung to warn people to run to high ground. In the resorts of southwest Thailand holidaymakers fled hotels as television flashed warnings.
Hundreds of people, with children yanked from their beds and still wearing pyjamas, gathered at the town hall on the Thai resort island of Phuket.
In India's Tamil Nadu state radio stations warned people to move away from the ocean.
"People are very tense as they fear that another tsunami is going to hit our coasts. Many of our fishermen have gone to the sea and we are praying for their safe return," Xavier Lawrence, a priest in the town of Kanyakumari, told AFP.