Tsunami warning siren goes off accidentally, causes panic in Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, June 4 Kyodo

A tsunami warning siren went off accidentally in the capital of Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh Province on Monday, causing thousands of residents to flee from their homes and run to higher ground, officials and witnesses said.

One of eight sirens in Banda Aceh ''rang for quite a long time, maybe about half an hour,'' a resident in Kaju area said, adding there was no immediate explanation from officials.

Witnesses said that panicked residents in Kaju and nearby Darussalam and Lamdingin areas clogged the streets to flee from their homes, causing traffic accidents and injuries.

Later, police urged people to return to their homes through a loudspeaker.

In Aceh, many people were traumatized by the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean quake and tsunami disaster that killed as many as 170,000 people in the northernmost province.

The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said it is investigating the incident and speculated it may have been caused by a malfunction.

''The siren is not activated without permission from Jakarta or Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province,'' an official in Banda Aceh mayoralty said.

Indonesia is now establishing a nationwide tsunami warning system on its coastlines which are prone to tsunamis.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Kyodo News International, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning