BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - A local tsunami alert was issued and later lifted after an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck Sumatra, Indonesia, the country’s quake agency and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported on Sunday.

“Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated. Therefore the tsunami watch issued by this center is now canceled,” the USGS said.

West Aceh police chief Djoko Widodo, told Reuters that the quake, which happened at 0559 GMT around 140 miles south of Banda Aceh, briefly caused panic.

“From what I see around my office, there’s no damage but I see people running out of their houses. They are still outside, afraid to go back,” he said.

The Indonesian archipelago stretches across a seismically active area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire and is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes.

A 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on Sumatra island killed 170,000 people in Aceh province alone, while more than 1,000 people died after a powerful quake hit the city of Padang last September.