Coastal regions of of Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, India and Bangladesh were put on tsunami watch after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the Andaman Islands, east of India, a few minutes before 6am AEST (2am local time).

But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled the alert just after 8am AEST (4am local time), declaring: "Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated’’.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 33 kilometres, about 263 kilometres north of Port Blair, the main town in the Andamans, 365 kilometres west of Bassein in Burma, and 825 kilometres west of Bangkok, Thailand.