A powerful earthquake was registered in west Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Monday. Even though no great damages were discovered, the government issued a tsunami warning. However, the warning was lifted just 45 minutes later.

Hassanudin, a police officer in Bengkulu town, told Reuters that “There are no reports of damages or casualties yet. When the quake happened, people stormed out of the police station. We still need to check with the police station on Muko-Muko (nearest to the epicenter) whether there has been any damage.”

The U.S. Geological Survey said that the earthquake which was felt in neighboring Singapore had a 7.3 magnitude and that it was at a depth of 35 km. However, Indonesia’s meteorology agency lifted the warning due to the fact that in that area the quake had a shallower depth of 10 km. Hassanudin said: “People panicked, but there was no big movement towards higher ground, althought here was a tsunami warning.”

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 300km northwest of Bengkulu and around 160km southwest of Padang. In September last year an 8.4 magnitude earthquake hit this area killing 25 people and destroying thousands of homes. Also, according to The Associated Press more than 230,000 were killed along Indonesia’s coast in December 26th 2004 because of a very powerful earthquake measuring more than 9 magnitudes, which eventually caused a tsunami.

Reuters report that Indonesia is localized in the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of intense seismic activity where a number of tectonic plates collide, this being the reason of the large number of earthquakes.

Unfortunately, despite its localization, Indonesia does not have the necessary equipment to measure the sea level. This would have helped indicating whether a tsunami would strike or not.