Indonesians told to stay alert after magnitude-7.3 earthquake

Indonesian authorities urged caution on Tuesday as residents returned gradually to their homes in western Sumatra after being rattled by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake and several aftershocks.
The earthquake, which took place out at sea at about 3 a.m. (2000 GMT Monday), triggered a tsunami warning that was lifted two hours later. There were no reports of casualties.
Residents in Padang, a city on the west coast of Sumatra, said they had panicked as tsunami warning sirens wailed and forced evacuation to higher ground in the middle of the night.
“We just ran because we heard there was a tsunami. I just brought my family, we didn’t bring anything else,” Hendra, a Padang resident who goes by one name, said while in an evacuation zone.
Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes because it straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where different plates of the earth’s crust meet.