Hundreds take part in tsunami drill in Indonesia

Jakarta - Hundreds of people in Indonesia's Aceh province took part in an Indian Ocean tsunami practice drill on Wednesday, officials said.

As sirens wailed, mosque loudspeakers ordered residents of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on the northern end of Sumatra, to seek safety, said Herdiyawati, an official at the province's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG).

Herdiyawati, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said the evacuation drill began with parents gathering their children and residents running to emergency shelters in a building used for the drill.

The exercise, a UN-backed initiative to test warning systems and the overall preparedness of several nations in the region, is supposed to simulate a magnitude-9.15 quake centred off Aceh, like the one on December 26, 2004 that triggered a huge tsunami.

Around 230,000 people died as that tsunami raced across the Indian Ocean and hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, including 170,000 deaths in Aceh alone.

Indonesians are still reeling from the devastating magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck off the coast of West Sumatra on September 30, killing 1,115 people and injuring hundreds of others.

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, early warning systems ranging from beach loudspeaker sirens to deep ocean monitor buoys have been set up to prompt people to seek safety on higher ground.

But experts say the country should install at least 22 buoys, 120 tide gauges and 160 seismographs in its waters in order to deliver tsunami alerts to its citizens and those most at risk within 5 minutes of a major quake.

According to the country's seismological agency, Indonesia so far has only 14 buoys, 60 tide gauges and 150 seismographs. Officials expect the system to be completed by 2010 with much of the funding coming from international donors, including Germany, Japan and China.

Countries participating in the Wednesday test include Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and East Timor. (dpa)