Islanders scramble for aid after quake

SURVIVORS combed the rubble of buildings for loved ones on Indonesia's earthquake-devastated Nias island yesterday as reports emerged of hundreds of additional deaths on a nearby island group.

On Nias, where as many as 2,000 people are feared to have died, survivors pleaded for help and some, driven by hunger, looted rice from a government store.

"Please sir, help us, we are starving," said a man in Gunungsitoli, the main town on Nias, as dozens of people looted the store.