(Bloomberg) -- Indonesian authorities lifted a tsunami warningissued after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the island ofSumatra, in a region where an undersea tremor killed hundreds ofthousands in 2004.

The tremor hit 500 miles (804 kilometers) southwest of Padang inSumatra at a depth of about 15 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Indonesia’s nationaldisaster mitigation agency initially reported the quake at amagnitude of 8.3.

State of emergency for Sumatra

Tremors were noted in tall buildings in the capital Jakarta onJava island, though residents in West Sumatran towns said the quakewas lightly felt. People on the coast of Sumatra should moveinland, Andi Eka Sakya, an official with Indonesia’smeteorology office, said earlier on tvOne.

Authorities declared a state of emergency for Sumatra tooptimize assistance, Heronimus Guru, deputy operations director atthe national search and rescue agency known as Basarnas, said viatext message. Footage aired on the TVRI television channel showedPadang city in darkness as electricity was cut off. People wereseen fleeing toward the east of city with roads congested.

President Joko Widodo was on the second day of a visit toSumatra and is safe, according to Bey Machmudin, head of thepalace press bureau. He is scheduled to return to Jakarta onThursday.

No info on casualties or damages yet

"There is no info on casualties or damages yet," Sutopo PurwoNugroho, a spokesman at the national disaster mitigation agency,said via text message. "The tsunami warning is based on modeling,while tsunami buoys in Indonesian waters haven’t reported anyexistence of a tsunami. Many buoys are broken and not functioning,so we don’t know whether the potential for a tsunami in the watersis true or not."

Waves unleashed in 2004 by a 9.1-magnitude undersea earthquakeoff the Sumatran coast caused the deadliest natural disaster thiscentury, taking more than 220,000 lives and leaving more than 1.5million homeless. Waves as high as 15 meters (50 feet) crashed intotowns and shorelines across more than a dozen countries, destroyingpeople’s livelihoods and possessions.

Indonesia’s 18,000 islands sit along the Pacific’s “ring offire” zone of active volcanoes and tectonic faults.

Thailand’s National Disaster Warning Center canceled itstsunami warning to coastal provinces as it hadn’t detected anyimpact. Sri Lanka, badly hit by the 2004 tsunami, also saidWednesday’s quake did not pose a threat to it.

--With assistance from Anusha Ondaatjie, Rieka Rahadiana, ShamimAdam, Suttinee Yuvejwattana, Herdaru Purnomo, Fitri Wulandari andNiluksi Koswanage.

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