An Indonesian who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caught in last week’s earthquake and tidal waves that devastated Japan, a news report said today.

Zahrul Fuadi, 39, and his family were among Indonesians who were evacuated from Japan after Friday's magnitude-9 earthquake struck off north-eastern Japan, triggering a tsunami.

Fuadi, a doctoral student at Japan’s Tohoku University, survived the 2004 tsunami, which devastated Indonesia’s Aceh province, by fleeing on a motorcycle with his family, but his house was destroyed.

“We were chased by tsunamis from Aceh to Japan,” Fuadi was quoted as saying by the Kompas.com news website.

Fuadi said that when Friday’s quake hit, he was making a presentation at his campus at Sendai in Miyagi prefecture, one of the areas worst hit by the disaster.

People dived under desks, but Fuadi said he sensed worse was yet to come. “The tremor was very strong and similar to the earthquake in Aceh,” he was quoted as saying. “I thought a tsunami was on the way.”

Luckily for him, the campus was out of the reach of the waves, which churned five kilometres inland.

“Despite what has happened, my family and I have so much to thank God for,” he said. “We have survived two of the biggest natural disasters recorded in history.”

- dpa