No cause for alarm: Experts

Several parts of Singapore, including the CBD, Changi, Eunos, Marine Parade, and Bedok felt tremors from the Sumatra earthquake yesterday evening.

PK Mathi, a 17-year-old junior college student, told The New Paper that he felt tremors at his home in Jalan Besar at 4.50pm yesterday.

He described how shocked his family was.

He said: "I was sitting down at the dinner table and suddenly there was swaying. You could see the house moving and shaking. When I stood up, I could see the window rattling.

"I was definitely scared. My mum and grandma were with me. They were really scared and they panicked, my aunt especially.

"We were very shocked, and the first thing we did was to sit down on the floor."

Ms Mariel Wong, 29, a social media specialist working on the sixth storey in the Beach Road area, said she first experienced tremors at around 5pm.

She said: "I was having a meeting with my colleagues and started to feel dizzy, but didn't think much of it until a commotion started. We ran out to the reception area and followed instructions from our receptionist to go downstairs.

"I only found out about the earthquake later from a co-worker."

Later, back in the office at 6.30pm, Ms Wong felt a secondary tremor.

"This time, nobody went down," she said.

The police and the SCDF said they received 38 calls from members of the public about the tremors, but they said there was no cause for alarm.

The SCDF advised the public to remain calm.

Dr Adam Switzer from the Earth Observatory at the Nanyang Technological University said Singapore is quite safe from earthquakes as it is situated on a shallow continental shelf. Relax

But are we safe from tsunamis like the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004?

The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center yesterday said there is a tsunami risk for Singapore today at 7.51am.

And the Internet was abuzz with messages about a possible tsunami hitting our shores.

Dr Switzer assured that Singapore is also safe from tsunamis.

The huge waves need to travel across the nearby Sunda Strait before reaching Singapore. That would reduce the height of the waves.

"Relax. If a tsunami does strike, you won't even notice. At the most, if you were standing on a beach, you might just get your feet wet," he said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.