New Delhi, Aug 11 - A strong earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck north of the Andaman islands early Tuesday and jolted not just the archipelago but large parts of eastern India, from Jharkhand right down the east coast till Tamil Nadu, as well as Bangladesh. No casualties were reported.

The quake in the Bay of Bengal that struck at 1.25 a.m. led to tremors in several parts of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. It also led to a tsunami warning that was later withdrawn.

Thousands of people spent the entire night on roads and fields fearing aftershocks.

The India Meteorological Department here reported the epicentre of the quake at latitude 14.10 north and longitude 93.00 east, just north of the Andaman Islands, and 1,020 km southeast of the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar where the jolt was clearly felt.

'No casualties or damage have been reported so far,' Balaram Singh, officer on special duty in the Orissa revenue control room, told IANS about six hours after the temblor.

'We were sleeping. We woke up after our house was shaken and some of our windows opened suddenly,' said 45-year-old Sadasiba Mohapatra, a business executive who ran out of his Bhubaneswar apartment along with his wife.

The US Geological Survey immediately issued a tsunami alert for the coasts of India, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. But the alert was withdrawn after a few hours when it became clear that no tsunami wave had been generated.

In Andhra Pradesh, high tidal waves along the Bay of Bengal coast raised fears of tsunami among fishermen and people living in the coastal belt. The Visakhapatnam Cyclone Warning Centre, however, said such tidal waves were common after a quake.

'We were afraid to go back to our house and remained in an open ground till dawn,' said a resident of Kakinada town.