Quake toll hits 23 as searches continue

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

Five more bodies have been recovered and one injured victim has died in hospital following Wednesday’s 8.4-magnitude quake that struck off the coast of western Sumatra and rattled four Southeast Asian countries, said Rustam Pakaya, of Indonesia’s health crisis centre.

He said rescuers were still searching for victims feared trapped under rubble in some remote areas.

More than 60 strong aftershocks have followed the major tremor – including a magnitude 7.8 – and a 10-foot-high tsunami was triggered by the quake, but no one died from the wave.

Experts have warned the string of large earthquakes could indicate a huge seismic event will follow soon. They fear it could rival the 9.0-magnitude tremor that led to the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami which killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Fifteen deaths have been reported in the city of Bengkulu, seven from West Sumatra province and one in Jambi province, Pakaya said.

At least 88 people have been injured.

Nearly 2,000 houses were destroyed, while another 10,000 were badly damaged.

Many people in affected areas have been camping out on high ground away from the ocean, fearing another violent quake. But with electricity back on in most places and no major aftershocks felt, some were beginning to reopen shops and clean up debris around their homes. About 400 refugees still remain at the governor’s office in Bengkulu and in the hills of the remote Mentawai islands.

Indonesia, comprising the world’s largest archipelago with a population of 235 million people, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on what is known as the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines surrounding the Pacific Basin.