Tsunami alerts after powerful quakes hit off Indonesia Reuters TV Residents of Aceh, Indonesia, make frantic phone calls after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake was recorded off Indonesia's coast. By Alastair Jamieson and Ian Johnston, msnbc.com Updated at 7:33 a.m. ET: Tsunami alerts were issued for the entire Indian Ocean Wednesday after a powerful 8.6-magnitude earthquake and a strong aftershock were recorded off Indonesia's coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said, in its latest revised statement, that the initial quake happened about 14 miles beneath the ocean floor and 270 miles from Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh, at 2:38 p.m. local time (4:38 am. The quake struck in a similar location to the 9.1-magnitude tremor on Dec. 26, 2004 that triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, killing almost 230,000 people, nearly three-quarters of them in Aceh province. A strong 8.2 magnitude aftershock hit at 6:43 a.m. ET, the USGS said; The USGS and Indonesia issued fresh tsunami alerts as a result. Indonesia's Geophysics Agency said it had detected a rise in sea level of up to 2 feet 7 inches, Reuters reported. A witness on Simeulue Island, near the epicenter of the quake, said the sea had receded by about 10 yards; water receding is a sign that a tsunami wave is about to arrive. Traffic jams to higher ground NBC News reported scenes of panic in Indonesia, with residents and even hospital patients fleeing buildings. PhotoBlog: Scenes of panic in Banda Aceh Sirens and Quran recitals from mosques are everywhere," a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency told Reuters. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch - an alert category one level below a warning - for countries as far apart as Australia, Thailand, Pakistan, Somalia, and South Africa. Victor Sardina, a geophysicist on duty at the Hawaii-based center, said a small tsunami wave had been recorded. "It doesn't look like a major tsunami," Sardina said. But we are still monitoring as tsunamis come in waves. Dr Roger Musson, head of seismic hazards at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, Scotland, said Wednesday's first quake appeared to have been caused by tectonic plates shifting horizontally, displacing less ocean water than the 2004 quake in which rock plates also moved vertically. 'Very scary' In Banda Aceh, Fauvan, who like many people in the region has a single name, told NBC News that when the quake struck "the buildings shook for three to four minutes - it was very scary." I immediately left the building and ran towards higher ground. A lot of peole did the same. There were a lot of people in the street," she said. She said she had now returned to the hotel. "It is quite good here now" she said, sensing the worst of the quake and tsunami warning had passed. Evacuation orders were issued for southern Thai provinces of Phuket and Phangnga. "The province has turned on the warning sirens and asked people all over Phuket island to move to a safe place," an official from the Phuket Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Center told Reuters by telephone. The country's National Disaster Prevention Center told NBC News that Phuket airport has been temporarily closed and flights diverted elsewhere. India's tsunami warning center warned waves measuring almost 20 feet high might strike parts of its eastern coast, which was heavily hit by the 2004 tsunami. Simon Boxall, a U.K. oceanographer, told Sky News that the danger would not necessarily be over if the first quake did not produce a tsunami. "The initial earthquake may not cause a tsunami ... [but] there's no reason why an aftershock, which could still reach up to 8 in magnitude, cannot still cause a tsunami," he added, speaking before the first aftershock hit. Boxall told Sky that not all offshore quakes produced tsunamis and issuing evacuation orders every time there was one could start to "get very messy." NBC News reported that quake has been rated as a '5' on the USGS MMI scale, which measures the physical intensity of an earthquake as felt on the ground. A strength 5 quake is defined as: "Felt inside by most, may not be felt by some outside in non-favorable conditions. Dishes and windows may break and large bells will ring. Vibrations like large train passing close to house. The most severe earthquake since 1900 was of 9.5 magnitude and struck Santiago and Concepcion in Chile on May 22, 1960, triggering tidal waves and volcanic eruptions. Some 5,000 people were killed and two million made homeless.