HEAVY rains hampered search teams yesterday in the hills of western Indonesia where hundreds of people were buried alive in landslides triggered by a massive earthquake that wiped out four villages.

CANDLES flickered at the heads of about 20 corpses, wrapped in white sheets on the street outside the Santa Maria church in the devastated town of Gunung Sitoli on Nias, the Indonesian isle known as a surfers’ paradise.

Candles flickered at the heads of about 20 corpses, lying in the street wrapped in white sheets outside the Santa Maria church in the devastated main town on Nias, the Indonesian isle known as a surfers' paradise.

The military was preparing to dig mass graves today on Indonesia’s battered Sumatra Island, where the government said the official death toll from an earthquake and tsunamis had reached more than 32,000.