Tsunami hits Indonesia's Java

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A strong undersea earthquake off the southern coast of Indonesia's Java island on Monday triggered a tsunami that swept away buildings at a popular beach resort and killed at least 11 people, according to local news reports. There were no reports of casualties or damage in any other country. But the news caused panic across the region, which is still recovering from a tsunami less than two years ago that left nearly 230,000 people killed or missing, mostly in Indonesia. The official Antara news agency said 11 people had been killed along the southern Java coast on Monday. "An earthquake has happened and then was followed by a tsunami on the southern coast of Ciamis (regency)," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a news conference. "... the search is still going on to find those who probably have been swept away by the tsunami waves." A tsunami warning for Java's southern coast and nearby Christmas Island, south of the Indonesian archipelago, was issued by the U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. Police on Christmas Island, an Australian territory, said there was no damage there. India also issued a warning for the Andaman and Nicobar islands, badly hit by the 2004 tsunami, but officials said there was no real threat. The Maldives, a low-lying chain of islands to the southwest of India, also issued a warning. A massive earthquake in December 2004 triggered a tsunami that left nearly 230,000 people killed or missing, at least 170,000 of them in Indonesia's Aceh province. Tens of thousands died elsewhere, the majority in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. On Monday, a policeman at Pangandaran Beach near Indonesia's Ciamis town, around 270 km (168 miles) southeast of Jakarta, told Metro TV that the death toll was likely to climb. "Everything looks like a mess. Buildings on the southern coast have been damaged. Only permanent buildings are still standing," said the policeman, called Agus. Pangandaran, the area that appeared to receive the brunt of Monday's tsunami is a popular local tourist spot with many small hotels on the beach and is close to a nature reserve. WASHED AWAY The waves washed away wooden cottages and kiosks lining the shoreline facing the Indian Ocean, witnesses said. "When the waves came, I heard people screaming and then I heard something like a plane about to crash nearby and I just ran," Uli Sutarli, a plantation worker who was on Pangandaran beach, told Reuters by telephone. "All wooden structures are flattened to the ground but hotel buildings made out of concrete are still standing. There is rubbish everywhere," he added. "I think there will be a lot of fatalities because probably they are buried under rubble. The road to the scene is covered by rubbish brought by the waves", policeman Agus said. A woman who said she was a witness had earlier told Jakarta-based Radio Elshinta that waves came several hundred metres inland at Pangandaran Beach. Hendri Subakti, head seismologist at the West Java earthquake centre, told Reuters the waves were a maximum of 1.5 metres high, although some witness reports talked of waves up to 5 metres. Some people were still fleeing the coastal area hours later as rumours spread that there could be another quake and tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre had said the quake, which hit at 0819 GMT, was of 7.2 magnitude. Indonesia's state meteorology and geophysics agency initially rated the quake at 5.5 magnitude, but later changed that to 6.8, and said there were two significant aftershocks. An official at the country's main fixed line operator, Telkom, said the phone system in the area was down. Some occupants of high-rise Jakarta buildings felt the quake, which had an epicentre more than 40 kilometres under the Indian Ocean 180 km off Pangandaran beach, and fled their offices. Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country. In May, an earthquake near the central Java city of Yogyakarta killed more than 5,700 people. Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire".