Sunday, December 26 2004 11:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangkok: At least nine people were killed today (Dec 26, 2004) in a flash flood in Indonesia's North-western province of Aceh after a powerful 8.5 magnitude earthquake shook the country's Sumatra island and also hit parts of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

The quake which occurred at around 00:58 GMT (6:28 IST) was centred 40 kms below the seabed, the US Geological Survey's website reported. In Jakarta, the intensity of Quake was put at 6.4 by seismologists.

According to residents in Indonesia's Aceh provincial capital Banda Aceh, floods hit parts of the city before receding, leaving at least nine people dead, reports reaching Bangkok said.

The massive earthquake caused dozens of buildings to collapse and triggered large tidal waves along the northern coast, the reports said.

The quake was also felt in neighbouring Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is located on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

Many parts of peninsular Malaysia also experienced tremors.

In Thailand the tremors were felt across country, especially in tall buildings in Bangkok, the southern provinces of Songkhla and Phuket, and northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, the meteorology department in Bangkok said. There have been no reports of damage in these two countries.