The Tsunami Warning Centre at Hyderabad has issued a warning for three places in Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Kishore Swarna Angel, a scientist at the TWC at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Service in Hyderabad, said that the impact of the earthquake was still being analysed.
"We have issued a tsunami warning for three places," he said.
An alert has also been issued for the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu along with Andaman and Nicobar.
The three places of Andaman Nicobar Islands for which the Red Alert has been sounded include Indira Point Great, Little Nicobar Island and Komatraand Katchal Island and Nicobar, said Kishore Swarna.
The Andhra Pradesh government has sounded an alert along its coast and directed the administration to be ready to face any situation. T Radha, commissioner of disaster management in Hyderabad, said that special control rooms have been set up in all the coastal districts.
"The fishermen who had gone for fishing on the sea have been asked to return. People have also been asked to move away from the beaches in Machilipatanam, Visakhapatanam and other places," he said.
Panic spread in coastal Andhra districts as people in many places felt tremors and ran out of their homes. Vijaywada, Visakhapatanam, Kakinada, Nellore and Tirupati were among the places where tremors were felt.
There has been no unusual turbulence in the sea till now.
Kishore Angel said that a "small impact" was likely to be felt along the eastern coast of India between 5 to 6 pm.
"Waves between 1 to 1.5 meters likely along the coast," he said.
The Tsunami Warning Centre has issued an advisory, stating, 'No immediate public action is required', to the authorities and disaster management agencies.
Putting the magnitude of the earthquake at 8.5, the Tsunami Warning Centre said that earthquakes of this size sometimes have the potential to generate tsunamis.
"So far, there is no confirmation about the triggering of a tsunami. An investigation is underway to determine if a tsunami has been triggered," it said.
