The death toll from Indonesia’s massive earthquake rose to 23 today as more villagers started returning home, an official said.

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.

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.