[ancientmariner]

Powerful earthquake rocks Southeast Asia, killing at least 9
12:24 AM EST Dec 26

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful earthquake rocked large parts of Southeast Asia on Sunday. The quake caused dozens of small buildings to collapse and triggered tidal waves in northwestern Indonesia, witnesses and officials said.

Nine people were killed as a result of the undersea quake in Indonesia's northwestern province of Aceh, where most of the damage was reported, el-Shinta radio station quoted a witness as saying.

It was not possible to immediately confirm the reports.

Electricity and telephone networks in parts of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, were knocked out and dozens of shops and buildings collapsed, the witness told el-Shinta.

"The ground was shaking for a long time," Yayan Zamzani told the station. "It must be the strongest earthquake in the last 15 years."

There were conflicting reports on the size of the temblor, which struck about 8 a.m. and was centred 160 kilometres off the west coast of Sumatra. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a magnitude of 8.5, capable of massive damage. But Indonesian seismologists said the quake had a magnitude of 6.4. There was no way to immediately clarify the discrepancy.

The quake was also felt in neighbouring Thailand and Malaysia. No major damage was reported in those two countries.

A tidal wave hit the Thai tourist resort island Phuket with waves as high as five metres after the earthquake, Thailand's meteorology department said. Some residents in Singapore felt light tremors from the Indonesian quake, local radio reported.

Residents in the towns of Lhokseumawe and Banda Aceh said tidal waves had triggered flooding in coastal regions.

An Associated Press reporter in Lhokseumawe said several houses had been damaged and that water levels on main streets in the town had reached one-metre high. At least one house had been swept away, he said.

Hundreds of people were fleeing to higher ground, he said.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called Ring of Fire around the Pacific Ocean basin.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.