Indonesia Quake Triggers Panic

A strong earthquake rocked Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on Wednesday, causing panicked residents to flee their homes.

As the earthquake hit the province, people started running for higher ground.

There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.

The magnitude 5.6 magnitude was centered about 30 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, said Erida Wati of the local Meteorology and Geophysics office.

"It caused panic among people. Some ran out of houses," she said.

This time there were no killer waves. A quake with a magnitude of less than 6 is not thought to be strong enough to induce a tsunami.

Witnesses say hundreds of panicked people ran, or crammed into cars or onto motorbikes to flee inland or to higher ground. One vegetable seller says "it felt like a dream."

Aceh has seen almost daily earthquakes since the massive one last December that produced a tsunami that killed more than 176-thousand people in eleven countries.

This quake shattered windows and caused cracks to appear in several buildings.