An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck the islands of Andaman and Nicobar in the Indian Ocean, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said Wednesday.

Local officials called the quake moderate and said there were no reports of any damage.

The USGS said the epicentre was located 176 kilometres south-west of Misha on the Nicobar Islands and occurred at 11:37 p.m. Tuesday (1807 GMT).

Thousands were killed when the islands were hit by the December 2004 tsunami which was triggered by a massive 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra.