Up to 1,300 dead in latest earthquake
Officials estimate 1,000 people have died since Monday’s 8.7-magnitude quake, and said Indonesia would welcome foreign military help for its latest disaster.
Some reports put the toll at 1,300.
The quake struck off Indonesia’s Sumatra island, some 75 miles north of Nias.
Monday’s quake initially raised fears of another tsunami and sent people scrambling for high ground in several Indian Ocean countries lashed by December’s killer waves. But no waves materialised.
North Sumatra Gov. Rizal Nurdin estimated that 1,000 people died in the latest disaster, but officials feared the number could climb to 2,000.
Bodies are still being dug from ruins of houses and shops today and laid out in front of churches and mosques.
A disaster relief official in Medan, Nerli Sulistriani, said there were unconfirmed reports of up to 300 people killed on Banyak island, close to the quake’s epicentre.
She said she could not confirm the report since there were no communication to Banyak island. It was not immediately clear where the reported toll came from.
Looting broke out in at least one location on Nias with men, women and children scrabbling through a two-story store and leaving with boxes of noodles, clothes and even a television set.
“There is no water, electricity or rice. Things are getting tough, we have had no help so what can we do?” said Marzuki Tanjung, who was not among the looters.
Nurdin said that foreign aid, including military help, would be welcome during an initial emergency phase of quake recovery. Nations including Australia and Japan have offered to send troops.
Andi Malarangeng, a spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the president would visit Nias island on Thursday.
Indonesia “welcomes and is open to all kind of assistance including help from foreign troops to assist in the disaster zone,” Malarangeng told AP.
“We heard the government of Australia, Singapore and Japan would like to send missions soon but I don’t know the details of the assistance. It has to be collected by the immediate emergency relief agency first,” he said. “However, we have heard that Singapore will send their Chinook (helicopters) to Nias Island soon.”
Japan said today it would send an 11-member emergency medical team and €106,000 worth of blankets, generators, sleeping pads and tents.
Australia dispatched two military transport planes with medical supplies, and diverted a transport ship to the new disaster zone.
“I think we should be as helpful as possible,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
UN agencies were trying to co-ordinate deliveries of food, fresh water and medical supplies by helicopter. The agencies have stockpiles of supplies in the region to help feed and care for survivors of the 9.0 quake and tsunami on December 26 that killed more than 126,000 on Sumatra and left about half a million homeless.
Gunung Sitoli’s main mosque was turned into a morgue for 21 Muslim victims. At a makeshift clinic outside the mosque, volunteers were running out of supplies.
“I have not slept since the earth began to shake,” said Dr Lucas Sapto, an Indonesian volunteer who was treating children with cuts on their faces.
A Chinese temple had about 20 bodies laid out in the tropical heat.
“We are waiting for a hearse. Once it comes, I can bury my daughter and two grandchildren,” said Lukmin, a 74-year-old Chinese Indonesian Buddhist, who, like many in this country, uses only one name.
Nias appeared to have borne the brunt of the tremor, but neighbouring islands also were hit and details of casualties there were sketchy.
Budi Atmaji Adiputro, chairman for Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Agency for National Disaster Relief, said his office was reporting only 17 dead on Simeulue island, despite reports from a local official of 100 victims.
“We have to be careful in counting”, he said, adding that, “We just have to count when we have seen the bodies.”
French firefighters today rescued a man who had been trapped for 36 hours under the rubble of a collapsed three-storey building on Nias.
With no heavy lifting equipment available, a team of French firefighters used a car jack as they struggled to rescue Jansen Silalalahi, a 25-year-old television repairman, who was trapped on the bottom floor of the building, his legs wedged between a motorbike and a cupboard.
“He’s the first person we’ve found alive,” said one of the French firefighters.
After four hours of struggle, the firefighters, who had been working with survivors of the December 26 quake and tsunami on Aceh province’s shattered west coast, rescued the man.
Silalalahi smiled weakly and gave a thumbs up as he was pulled from the wreckage before being taken to a makeshift centre where the injured were being ferried by helicopters and small planes to hospitals on Sumatra island.
