Thousands feared dead in Indonesia earthquake

Thousands of people were feared killed by a massive earthquake that flattened homes in Sumatra today.

Indonesia initially put the death toll at 75 but said many more were trapped under flattened buildings.

The 7.6-magnitude quake hit off the coast from the town of Padang.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry’s crisis centre, said thousands of people were trapped under collapsed buildings.

The quake triggered a landslide that cut off land transport to the area closest to the epicentre. Power and telecommunications were also cut.

The quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

A tsunami warning for countries along the Indian Ocean was issued, and panicked residents fled to higher ground fearing giant waves. The warning was lifted about an hour later.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said a shopping mall and two hospitals had collapsed in Padang – a sprawling low-lying city in Western Sumatra province of around 900,000 that geologists have warned could be vulnerable to a massive quake or tsunami.

“This is a high-scale disaster, more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006” when more than 3,000 people died,“ Ms Supari said, referring to a major city on the main island of Java.

“Many buildings are badly damaged, including hotels and mosques,” said Wandono, an official at Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta.

TV footage from Padang showed flattened buildings, the foot of one person sticking out from beneath the debris.

“The earthquake was very strong,” said Kasmiati, who lives on the coast near to the epicentre. “People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged.”

“I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured,” she said before her mobile phone went dead.

Some reports said the quake triggered landslides that cut all roads to Padang. Power and telecommunications were also cut. Fire also broke out in buildings on a road to the city.

“I want to know what happened to my sister and her husband,” said Fitra Jaya, who owns a house in downtown Padang and was in Jakarta when the quake struck.

“I tried to call my family there, but I could not reach anyone at all.”

The quake came a day after a quake with a magnitude of between 8.0 and 8.3 in the South Pacific hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa, flattening villages and leaving at least 99 dead and dozens missing.

Its epicentre lies several thousand miles to the west, on the other side of Australia.

The shaking could be felt in high buildings in Jakarta, several hundred miles away. It was also felt in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia.

Padang was badly hit by an 8.4 magnitude quake in September 2007, when dozens of people died and several large buildings collapsed.