The death toll in a powerful earthquake which hit central Indonesia rose to more than 4,000 today as exhausted and grieving survivors dug through their crumpled homes searching for clothes, food and valuables.

Thousands of exhausted and grieving survivors dug through their crumpled homes today searching for clothes, food and valuables after a powerful earthquake hit central Indonesia, killing more than 3,700.

A powerful earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early today, killing at least 2,900 people and injuring thousands more in the country’s worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami.

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi belched out massive clouds of black smoke and sent lava flows shooting from its crater, but villagers ignored the dangers of an imminent eruption and returned to its slopes today to tend their animals and crops.