5.5 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Indian Ocean

A 5.5. magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, but officials described it as "small" and a tsunami warning was not issued.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 176 miles (about 280 kms) north-northeast of India's Andaman Islands at 1008 GMT.

It had a depth of 24.2 miles (39 kms), USGS said.

"It is a small earthquake," a spokesman at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services said.

"We are checking water levels, but we have not issued any tsunami warning," he said by telephone from the southern city of Hyderabad.

Authorities in Port Blair, the capital of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said they did not have any reports of damage.