''WE FELT IT on the 4th floor of the JW Marriott in Mai Khao,'' wrote Phuketwan reader Lesley Drew. ''Lasted a few seconds and the building wobbled.''


PHUKET: Residents of Phuket and other Andaman provinces in Thailand felt an earthquake that reached magnitude 6.2 at 11.59pm last night.

Authorities were checking buildings in Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Ranong and Surat Thani for damage, according to social media reports.

Residents called rescue authorities after the shaking was felt at a three-storey apartment in Phuket City, a two-storey building in Chalong where windows shook, and a five-storey building in Surat Thani.

Other telephone calls followed.

The quake occurred at Nicobar - the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean are an Indian protectorate.

The epicentre of the earthquake was 446 kilometres from Phuket, at a depth of 10 kilometres.

The Bureau of Meteorology announced the earthquake at 12.05am.

The quake had been felt in the Phuketwan office in Phuket City.

Phuket is located in an earthquake prone area. There was no tsunami alert with last night's tremors.

Environmental activist Dr Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a noted marine academic investigating overdevelopment on Phi Phi, said there appeared no danger this time but urged people to know the evacuation routes to higher ground.

An undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.1 triggered a huge tsunami on December 26, 2004 that killed about 5400 people along the Andaman coast and 220,00 people around the Indian Ocean.

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, about 160,000 people died.