Meteorological Dept withdraws tsunami warning in Kedah, Perlis, Penang and Perak

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Meteorological Department has withdrawn the tsunami warning for Kedah, Perlis, Penang and north Perak issued early yesterday morning following a strong earthquake that was detected on the west coast of north Sumatera.

Principal Assistant Director, Geophysics and Tsunami Division, Ahmad Zaki Mohamad Saat said the tsunami warning previously was withdrawn after the result of monitoring in each state at about 7 am was satisfactory.

“We have monitored all the places in the states involved, and found that the earthquake that occurred early this morning (yesterday) did not pose a tsunami threat,” he said when contacted by Bernama, here yesterday.

He said, early yesterday morning there was a strong earthquake on the west coast of north Sumatera and it affected the sea, and his department had issued an alert to the public to stay away from the beaches.

“Tremors have been reported by the public between 2am and 3am earlier, mainly from Penang, and we have advised them to stay away from the coast.

“We did not receive many calls this morning (yesterday) probably because the incident occurred when the people were sound asleep,” he said.

A Kedah Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said his department did not receive any complaint about any earthquake this morning, but received an instruction to withdraw the earthquake alert on the possibility of a tsunami.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Education Attaché Ludinata Misnun in a statement yesterday informed that Malaysian students in Banda Aceh are safe.

He said the National Malaysian Student Association in Indonesia (PKPMI) Aceh Branch had contacted all students and directed them to take shelter on higher ground, but they returned home after the tsunami warning was withdrawn.

He added that students in Medan are also safe, a majority of whom did not even realise the earthquake as the tremors were weak. — Bernama