:: oh no, not again ::

**updates**

now, CNA has more reports (mostly from phone calls from their correspondents who sounded dead sleepy and tired, and some residents who called about the tremors at their house).

Kudos to Metro TV of Indonesia, for being the first to show 'live' news coverage of the quake...

**end**

just past 1 am and a friend had sms'ed that there has been a major earthquake near to the epicenter of the last tsunami tragedy, and how glad he was that i've returned from phuket.

thanks, chin!

his wife has felt some movement at their apartment in the eastern side of Singapore too.

tuned in the news channels of cnn and bbc, (forget channelnewsasia, as they had only the latest headline tag at the bottom of the screen).

it was confirmed that there has been an earthquake at 8.2 (CNA reported it to be 8.5) of the richter scale at north sumatra. there were no live pictures yet, just graphic to illustrate the geographical location of the quake as well as the weather experts analysis.

Huge quake hits Indonesian coast

A powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean has hit the coast of Indonesia's tsunami-hit island of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami alert.

The quake was given a magnitude of 8.2 by the US geological survey who have warned it could cause tidal waves

The epicentre was located at about 200 km (125 miles) off the mainland.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake could cause a "widely destructive tsunami" in the area around its epicentre.

via bbcworld

this is totally deja-vu for me, that was just like 26th Dec 2004, on a lazy sunday with news just coming in bits and pieces. i hope that everything will be ok, i will be optimistic.

i will pray for everyone's safety before i go to sleep (if i am able to go to sleep, that is), i will pray real hard! God, my heart is pounding real hard now....