India and Sri Lanka have withdrawn tsunami alerts issued after a massive earthquake hit the coast of Indonesia.
The 8.7 magnitude quake struck just before midnight on Monday, killing hundreds of people and destroying buildings on island of Nias.
Thousands of people fled their homes in India and Sri Lanka - areas recovering from the deadly tsunami in December.
But early on Tuesday, the tsunami alerts were withdrawn and people asked to return home.
India has begun work on an early warning system after the December tsunami.
"Our machinery worked very well. We had alerted all the coastal states within 10 minutes. So many people were traumatised by the previous tsunami that they evacuated immediately," SK Swami, director of the government's disaster management division, told AFP news agency.
A tsunami alert was issued in the mainland southern coastal areas, including Tamil Nadu, as well as on the Andaman and Nicobar islands - areas which were badly hit by the tsunami in December.
Memories still raw
The December disaster killed nearly 11,000 people in India, about 8,000 of those in Tamil Nadu state.
"Everything is normal here"
"It seems that danger has passed."
Hundreds of people who fled their homes in the coastal areas have begun returning, officials said.
"We had requested people in 73 villages facing the sea to move to high ground. But now that the tsunami fears have subsided, they are returning to their homes," J Radhakrishnan, a senior official of Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district told the Associated Press.
Sri Lanka is also returning to normality after a night of fear and panic, reports say.
Thousands along the coastal belt fled inland after news of a possible tsunami spread through communities.
State television gave the initial warning and security forces with hailers urged people to evacuate their homes.
The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says that while people have been returning home on Tuesday some are still reluctant to do so and are staying with their friends and families.
Reports say that prayers have been held in temples across the country.
"There is a tremendous sense of relief here," a senior government official, Velmurrugu Shanmugam, told the Associated Press.
"There were tremendous fears, but now it is ok."
More than 30,000 people died in the December tsunami in Sri Lanka.
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