But thankfully, the latest tremor appeared to have caused no widespread death or destruction, officials said.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency lifted the tsunami alert hours after the warnings were issued following the massive seismic activity in the evening.
"It has been one hour and 45 minutes (after the earthquake) and there will probably be no tsunami," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the agency spokesman, told Kompas TV.
Australian authorities also called off their tsunami alerts. However, it was still not clear if the quake caused any massive damage to properties or killed people in Sumatra.
A National Search and Rescue Agency official initially reported that there were some deaths. But the report was later withdrawn.
"Up until now, there is no information about deaths," said Heronimus Guru, the agency's deputy head of operations.
Andi Eka Sakya, head of the National Meteorological Agency, told TVOne that "so far there have been no reports" of any major damage.
"In Bengkulu (in southwest Sumatra) they didn't feel it at all."
The CNN said that the quake was centered in the Indian Ocean about 660 kilometers southwest of Muara Siberut and roughly 800 kilometers west-southwest of Padang, which is on the west coast of Sumatra, the Asian archipelago nation's largest island.
The US Geological Survey indicated the earthquake struck 24 kilometers deep.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, a US government agency, said there was "no tsunami observed" even as the agency initially noted a "potential...threat".
The Jakarta Globe reported that the earthquake caused a panic among residents of Padang, West Sumatra, who were still traumatized by the 2009 earthquake which killed more than 1,000 people.
Indonesia, especially Aceh, was badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 when a 9.15-magnitude quake opened a fault line deep beneath the ocean on Dec 26 that year.
The quake triggering a wave as high as 17.4 meters that crashed ashore in more than a dozen countries to wipe some communities off the map in seconds.
Source: Indonesia lifts tsunami warning after 7.8-earthquake
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