Firefighters freed a man who was pinned for 36 hours in the wreckage of a collapsed building, as other earthquake survivors on Indonesia’s Nias island searched frantically for loved ones missing amid the rubble.

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.

HIS eyes puffy and bloodshot, Datot Mendra prepared to spend the night lying next to his wife.

Indonesia’s vice president has predicted that as many as 2,000 people may have died in yesterday's earthquake.

A powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake hammered Indonesia’s west coast, collapsing homes and burying sleeping residents inside and sparking panic across Indian Ocean countries still traumatised by the tsunami disaster three months ago. Death toll estimates varied widely, from about 200 to 10 times that number.

A POWERFUL earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia late yesterday, sending residents in several countries fleeing in panic fearing that it would cause the region's second tsunami disaster three months on.

Hundreds of people reported missing after floods and landslides killed at least 35 on a remote Indonesian island have turned up safe.

At least 62 people have died after a landslide buried part of a village on a remote Indonesian island.