People struggle to bury dead

THEY struggled to bury the dead and desperate residents looted shops on the Indonesian island of Sumatra yesterday, where the earthquake and tsunamis killed up to 25,000 people.

As emergency supplies began arriving in the island’s worst-hit province of Aceh, scores of corpses lay uncollected on the streets, triggering fears of an outbreak of disease.

Rescue teams have yet to visit large parts of Aceh, especially along its western coast. Initial reports say miles of villages along the coast were swept away. The official death toll stood at 5,000 but vice-president Yusuf Kalla predicted that up to 25,000 may have died and another 100,000 have been injured.