A strong earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island near the city of Padang, damaging buildings. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake had a magnitude of 7.9 and was centered 600 kilometers northwest of Jakarta. It struck in the early evening local time (1016 UTC) at a depth of more than 80 kilometers.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand, but there were no initial reports of large waves generated by the quake. The quake was felt around the region, with some high-rise buildings in the neighboring city state of Singapore evacuating their staff.

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago. It is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
 
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.