(AFP, Reuters) - Tremors were felt in Singapore on Thursday at about 8am, the second time in 24 hours. As many as two aftershocks have rattled the Indonesian island of Sumatra this morning, measuring 7.7 and 6.7 on the richter scale.

Members of the public from all over the island sent STOMP, The Straits Times' interactive portal, MMSes and SMSes.

Systems Manager Sherlin Goh, 28, saw the lantern on her ceiling sway just before 8am at her New Upper Changi Road flat.

Others complained of dizziness as they said the tremors lasted between one and two minutes.

A police news release said together with the SCDF, they have received about 500 calls from the public reporting the tremors.

Inspection by HDB, buildings safe
They said 288 buildings experienced tremors as a result of Thursday morning's earthquake in Sumatra. They were located mainly in Clementi, Jurong, Toa Payoh, Punggol, Hougang, Woodlands and the Central Business District.

Most of them were HDB buildings.

HDB engineers have inspected 223 buildings and police said they have been certified structurally safe.

'Buildings in Singapore are designed with in-built strength and are unlikely to collapse because of tremors caused by distant earthquakes.'

Police urge calm after second Indonesian quake
Indonesian police sought to calm survivors of a 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck on Thursday morning, as they scrambled to hunt for victims. Tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and lifted for Indian Ocean countries after the magnitude 8.4 earthquake - the biggest anywhere in the world this year - was followed over the next 18 hours by 22 tremors ranging in intensity from 4.9 to 7.8.

An Australian seismologist said the region was lucky to have escaped a devasting tsunami similar to the one triggered by the 2004 quake that killed more than 280,000 people.

'There was a tsunami created by the earthquake, it just travelled in a southwest direction away from land,' said Mike Turnbull at Central Queensland University.

The initial quake, which happened on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, was felt across the Malaysian peninsula and Indonesian archepelago, cutting communication lines and sparking fears that the region would awake on Thursday to scenes of widespread devastation.

There was panic and chaos in the hours that followed and as the aftershocks continued, but by Thursday afternoon it appeared the region may have been spared a major disaster.

In Bengkulu, a coastal city of about 300,000 people and the closest major town to the epicentre of the quake, said the situation there appeared calm, with shops re-opening and people milling around.

Many people chose to sleep out in the open on Wednesday night rather than return indoors, said a Red Cross official in Bengkulu, a mountainous area that attracts few foreign tourists.

Walls of buildings in the city had cracked, but most homes were still standing - although a school was badly damaged and the ceiling of the main hospital had also come down.

The mayor of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, said many people were trapped under collapsed buildings.

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