BENGKULU, Indonesia - Indonesia's Sumatra island was pounded by aftershocks on Thursday after a massive earthquake killed at least eight people and buried many others under collapsed buildings.
Tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and lifted for Indian Ocean countries after the magnitude 8.4 earthquake -- the biggest anywhere in the world this year -- was followed over the next 18 hours by 22 tremors ranging in intensity from 4.9 to 7.8.
An Australian seismologist said the region was lucky to have escaped a devasting tsunami similar to the one triggered by the 2004 quake that killed more than 280,000 people.
"There was a tsunami created by the earthquake, it just travelled in a southwest direction away from land," said Mike Turnbull at Central Queensland University.
The initial quake, which happened on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, was felt across the Malaysian peninsula and Indonesian archepelago, cutting communication lines and sparking fears that the region would awake on Thursday to scenes of widespread devastation.
There was panic and chaos in the hours that followed and as the aftershocks continued, but by Thursday afternoon it appeared the region may have been spared a major disaster.
A Reuters photographer in Bengkulu, a coastal city of about 300,000 people and the closest major town to the epicentre of the quake, said the situation there appeared calm, with shops re-opening and people milling around.
Many people chose to sleep out in the open on Wednesday night rather than return indoors, said a Red Cross official in Bengkulu, a mountainous area that attracts few foreign tourists.
"My family and neighbours are evacuating to higher ground. Everyone in the place where I live decided to evacuate," said 35-year-old Padang resident Eri Kamra.
Walls of buildings in the city had cracked, but most homes were still standing -- although a school was badly damaged and the ceiling of the main hospital had also come down.
The mayor of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, said many people were trapped under collapsed buildings.
MANY TRAPPED
A Reuters witness there said a four-storey car showroom had collapsed, trapping several staff. At least one body was carried away from the rubble.
