Moderate 5.6 quake hits off India's Andamans

A moderate 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of India's Andaman Islands on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or tsunami warnings issued.

The undersea quake hit at a depth of 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) around 192 kms southeast of Port Blair on the Andaman islands, which are located in the Bay of Bengal, at 19:39pm local time (1339 GMT), the USGS said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there were no advisories in place.

Myanmar lies to the north of the Andaman Islands and Indonesia to the south while New Delhi is more than 2,500 kilometres away to the northwest.

The Andamans were badly hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami, which was triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra that sent giant waves crashing into countries around the Indian Ocean.

The Andaman Sea area witnesses frequent earthquakes caused by the meeting of the Indian plate with the Burmese microplate along an area known as the Andaman trench.

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