BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia’s west coast late Monday, killing scores of people whose homes collapsed on them and spreading panic across the Indian Ocean that another killer tsunami was on the way. Indonesia’s vice president predicted up to 2,000 deaths.

But fears of a second tsunami catastrophe in just over three months eased within hours, as officials in countries at risk reported their coasts clear of the type of quake-spawned waves that ravaged a dozen countries in Asia and Africa on Dec. 26.

Almost all the deaths reported in the hours immediately after Monday’s quake were on Indonesia’s Nias island, off Sumatra’s west coast, which was close to the epicenter. Police were pulling bodies of children out of the rubble of collapsed houses, and a fire was reportedly raging in one town.

“It is predicted — and it’s still a rough estimate — that the number ... of dead may be between 1,000 and 2,000,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the el-Shinta radio station. He said the estimate was based on an assessment of damage to buildings, not bodies counted.

Other estimates varied. A district official in the town of Gunungsitoli said about 300 had died there, while Indonesia’s information minister said between 100 and 200 had died.

Two people were also killed in Sri Lanka during a panicky evacuation from the coast in a Tamil rebel-held area, authorities said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck about 19 miles under the seabed, some 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra island. It was centered just 110 miles southeast of December’s 9.0-magnitude temblor — the world’s most powerful in 40 years.

Monday’s wallop, although very powerful, was but a fraction of the earlier quake. In explosive power, December’s quake was equal to 100 million pounds of TNT; it caused the seabed to spring up as much as 60 feet.