Search for loved ones continues on quake island

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.

The estimated death toll from the second major natural disaster to strike western Indonesia in three months stood at 1,000, though the number of bodies recovered remained less than 400.

Isolated looting was reported in Gunung Sitoli, the largest town on Nias, while health officials warned that power and water failures for hospitals had raised the risk of infections among the injured.

The first foreign troops arrived with emergency aid today, and the UN and other agencies were planning to divert relief supplies from Sumatra where they had been stockpiled to help victims of the Asian tsunami disaster on December 26.

Nias, known as a surfers' paradise, and other islands off Sumatra’s west coast bore the brunt of the 8.7 magnitude quake that struck shortly before midnight on Monday, collapsing hundreds of homes as residents slept.

Provincial governor Rizal Nurdin estimated today that 1,000 people had been killed, though the search through the rubble was still in its early stages.

Azwar Abubakar, the acting governor of neighbouring Aceh province, said he visited Banyak island near Nias and reported no casualties there, though most stocks of food and fuel had been destroyed and there was a risk of illness if emergency aid did not reach the island soon.

In Gunung Sitoli, residents searched through collapsed houses and shops for survivors. Bodies dug from the ruins were laid out in front of churches and mosques, which were turned into makeshift morgues.

French firefighters who rushed to Nias from Aceh province, where they were helping in the relief effort for the December catastrophe, used a car jack to free television repairman Jansen Silalalahi, 25, whose legs were caught between a motorbike and a cupboard in the remnants of a noodle restaurant.

Silalalahi smiled weakly and gave a thumbs-up sign as the team, from the agency Firefighters Without Borders lifted him free.

The town’s hospital was barely functioning: It lacked power and water and fuel for generators.

“We know there are many people critically injured,” said Dr Norman Peeler, a medical coordinator from the World Health Organisation. “It is essential they get treatment, infections spread easily in open wounds.”

At a makeshift clinic outside Gunung Sitoli’s main mosque, 21 volunteers were running out of supplies.

“I have not slept since the earth began to shake,” said Dr Lucas Sapto as he treated children with cuts on their faces.

At a Buddhist temple, about 20 bodies were laid out in the tropical heat.

“We are waiting for a hearse. Once it comes, I can bury my daughter and two grandchildren,” said Lukmin, 74, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Some men, women and children scrabbled through a two-story store and looted boxes of noodles, clothes and a television set.

“There is no water, electricity or rice. Things are getting tough, we have had no help so what can we do?” asked Marzuki Tanjung, who was not among the looters.