A new massive earthquake has hit northern Indonesia on Monday night (16:09 GMT). The nation immediately feared a second tsunami such as the one 3 months ago which saw nearly 300,000 dead or missing. While the country has just entered the reconstruction phase and people are still struggling to recover a normal life from the last devastating disaster, churches and aid agencies have promptly headed the upcoming new challenges.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla predicted that the death toll may climb up to 2,000 based on an assessment of damage to buildings. It is believed that many people are still trapped in the rubble of buildings that collapsed.

The epicentre of the quake measuring 8.7 was again located under the sea-bed, some 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of the Aceh province on Sumatra island. It was just 200 miles south of the 26 December tremor which sent giant waves crashing into 12 coastal nations in Asia and Africa.

Associated Press reported that sirens sounded throughout the region as authorities issued tsunami alerts for six countries after the quake struck at 11:06pm local time as many people were sleeping. People in Banda Aceh were frightened and immediately grabbed small bags of clothes, left their tents for higher ground to flee for their lives. Some Muslim women ran into the darkened streets of Banda Aceh, crying and chanting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great."

The Indonesia coordinating office for the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International reports that northern Sumatra's Nias Island and Simeuleu Island off Aceh were hit very hard. A state of emergency has been declared in the area.

Nias is an island of 700,000 people which is popular with surfers. According to the ACT Coordinating Office in Geneva, between 500 and 1,000 houses and/or buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Gunungsitoli, the capital of Nias. Four churches are said to have collapsed. Electricity and telephone lines have been cut.

Yayasan Tanggul Bencana (YTB) and YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) are already present in the area and are coordinating their relief efforts. YTB will concentrate on providing food items to affected people and is getting rice, baby food, and mineral water ready for distribution to the affected area.

On the other hand, another ACT partner Church World Service Indonesia (CWS) is contributing non-food items. They have prepared 25 boxes of medicine, 1,000 units of non-food packages and 500 tents to be distributed. Both YTB and CWS distribution will be flown to the region tomorrow coordinated by CWS.

YEU will provide emergency medical services and has sent three medical doctors and a nurse by helicopter from Jakarta directly to Nias.

The ACT Coordinating Office in Geneva has approved the allocation of $500,000 US to relief efforts related to the latest disaster.

The quake lasted two minutes, the neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and India all experienced the shake at the same time.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra commented that a makeshift warning system had worked well. "Although our warning system is not yet complete, we managed to alert people in enough time for them to seek safety," he said.

Hundreds of people, many still wearing pyjamas, gathered at the town hall on the Thai island of Phuket. Holidaymakers fled hotels as television flashed warnings and escaped from the Phuket's Patong beach.

In northwestern Sri Lanka witnesses said people ran to temples and churches where bells were rung to warn people to run to high ground.

Xavier Lawrence, a priest in the town of Kanyakumari in India's Tamil Nadu told AFP, "People are very tense as they fear that another tsunami is going to hit our coasts. Many of our fishermen have gone to the sea and we are praying for their safe return."

Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, said UN helicopters flew early Tuesday over Sumatra to survey the damage with the worry that many of the structures that were damaged in the first major earthquake may collapse.