THE 8.5 magnitude earthquake on Wednesday evening that struck off the coast of Sumatra had caused massive destruction and lost of lives.

Even though Singapore is about 750km away from where it happened, tremors could be felt here and it sent a wave of panic as people took to the streets in fear.

But the National Environment Agency's Meteorological Services Division says Singapore is not under any imminent threat.

In fact they are in the process of bumping up our seismic monitoring capabilities.

Meteorological officer Ms Yap Chui Wah said: 'What we're trying to build up is capabilities in seismic monitoring as well as tsunami monitoring, so one of our first phase is the upgrading of the central monitoring system, as well as to augment our current network.

'So we're getting three more seismic stations in Singapore, and that will help to provide timely ground infomation.'

Ms Yap added two of the areas containing borehole sensors will be on reclaimed land while the other will be in Katong Park.

Currently, Singapore has four sensor stations that are located in Jurong at Nanyang Technological University, Bukit Timah Dairy Farm, Beatty Secondary in Toa Payoh and Pulau Tekong.

Besides monitoring earthquakes, NEA also revealed that they are looking into ways to up their effectiveness through risk assessment.

More details will be available in 2008.

In addition, the meteorological department stressed that Singapore is not facing any imminent danger from the quakes.

'What impacts on us are of a regional nature, because we are not on any major fort zone. We are next to one. There is one near Sumatra and one Great Sumatran Fort that runs through Sumatra.'