THAILAND was participating in a regionwide tsunami test today. From Australia to Africa, virtually every nation around the Indian Ocean was taking part in the event.

The drill comes after a tsunami killed more than 100 people in Samoa last month, ''providing a sober reminder that coastal communities everywhere need to be aware and prepared for such events,'' a spokesperson for the organisers said.

Jamrang Chutap, of the Thailand Disaster Warning Centre, said the exercise began at 8am and would continue until 6pm.

''It's to make sure communications work between everyone involved,'' she said. ''We haven't encountered any problems yet,'' she told Phuketwan at 11am.

A real tsunami alert that turned out to be a false alarm raised awareness about tsunami preparedness on Phuket and along the Andaman coast last month.

On Phuket, as the alert reached Level Two (prepare to evacuate) Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-nob headed for Patong to make sure preparations were proceeding smoothly.

The alert was called off before Level Three (evacuate) was reached.

Earlier in the year, in another alert triggered by an earthquake off Indonesia, inhabitants in the village of Nam Khem, north of Phuket, decided to flee, just in case.

Today's exercise aimed to simulate conditions almost five years ago when a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off northern Sumatra generated waves that struck Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India killing more than 220,000 people, including 5400 on Phuket and the Andaman region.

Mock bulletins were to be issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency in Tokyo and the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center as the simulated tsunami spreads across the Indian Ocean, taking about 12 hours to travel from Indonesia to the coast of South Africa.

some experts have questioned the effectiveness of early alert systems, particularly if the time interval between the alarm and the tsunami hitting the area is very short.

Bloomberg news service reported that Indonesian authorities said many coastal communities still do not fully appreciate the danger of tsunamis, even after more than 100,000 people were killed in Aceh province in 2004.

''Not only is it still hard for them to accept directives,'' said Idwan Suhardi, deputy minister at the Ministry of Research and Technology. ''It is hard for them to understand the purpose.''

Other countries taking part in the drill are Australia, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Seychelles, Singapore, Tanzania and East Timor.