On the west coast of Phuket, where the main resorts of this tropical island are concentrated, the waves, which the locals called a tsunami, crashed. On Sunday morning, the streets of the Thai resort were flooded, and tourists were in a panic mood after seeing the consequences of the earthquakes in Andaman.
According to Thai media, rough seas and strong waves in the Andaman Sea and Phang Nga Bay caused a small earthquake in northern Sumatra (a large island in Indonesia) earlier on Sunday morning. As a result, the road to Kalim Beach, which is located next to the popular Patong Beach, was flooded in Phuket. Eyewitnesses described what they saw as a “tsunami” of the royal influx: before their eyes, the waves rushed outside and onto a busy road, causing panic. Some tourists, being at a safe distance near the Sarasin Bridge in the north of the resort island, managed to take photos.
Earlier on Sunday morning, a small earthquake occurred in the north of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 occurred on land. At the same time, there was no tsunami warning from emergency services. The peak tremors were recorded at 7:11 a.m. local time, nearly 6 hours before the king tide reached its peak, crashing waves into some resort areas along Phuket’s west coast.
The tsunami also caused some damage to the Maya Bay Pier on the eastern side of Phi Phi Leh Island, where the pier’s steel structure broke away from floating plastic pontoons. After the incident, access to Maya Bay was closed. Construction was only completed late last year to reopen Maya Bay and for the convenience of boaters who no longer had to enter the bay from the entrance side and park inside the bay as in the past.