KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of workers in several cities in the peninsular fled their high-rise offices as tremors shook the buildings following an earthquake in Sumatra.
Tourists in hotels were also affected.
Australian James Rich, 33, said he was taking a shower when he felt the tremors in his room in Renaissance Hotel.
“I did not want to take any chances, so I quickly dried myself and rushed down,” he said.
Concorde Hotel front office manager Aaron J. Nelson said the reception desk received many worried calls from guests.
Mariam Anis and her colleagues on their 21st floor office in Plaza Sentral ran to the emergency staircase and rushed to the ground floor.
Kuala Lumpur Fire Department Operations deputy director Azizan Ismail said they received over 30 distress calls from people.
“I personally received about five calls from friends but I told them to calm down and look out for cracks and damage in their building structures before calling us to conduct an inspection,” he said.
Azizan confirmed that two buildings suffered slight damage due to the tremors.
They were the Kuala Lumpur Hospital workers quarters and Pantai Dalam flats. Both were later given the all clear for residents go back into the buildings.
In Petaling Jaya, workers in the Phileo Damansara area ran down when they felt their offices moving.
Eve Tan, who works on the eighth floor, said: “At first I thought I was dizzy and felt like everything was floating.”
Cheong Ying Haw, 38, and Peter Mietlewski, 45, were working on the 11th floor when a colleague told them to exit the building.
Florentyna Leow, 18, said she could feel the tremors in her 16th floor apartment in Damansara.
“I checked Twitter and there were 100 updates coming in every second,” she said.
In Johor Baru, UTM architecture student Nicole Ang, 23, was in the studio with five other students when she felt the tremors.
“It looked like things were floating and I felt dizzy,” she said.
Operations at the new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex were stopped for 40 minutes after the tremors were felt.
This caused massive congestion as thousands of motorists were returning from Singapore after office hours.
In George Town, hundreds of people ran out of high-rise buildings in Macallum Street, Tanjung Bungah, Tanjung Tokong, Gurney Drive and in town.
Student C.Y. Khoo, 18, said she and her friends decided to walk out from a GSC cinema in Gurney Plaza, where they were watching a movie.
“We decided to get out during the movie,” she said.
In Kota Baru, tremors were felt in Kelantan and some 300 residents of the Pelangi Mall condominiums panicked.
Pelangi Mall managing committee chairman Najib Baharuddin said many residents had earlier assumed they were simply feeling dizzy and only realised the building was shaking soon after.
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