Indonesia quake survivors rocked by second tremor

A second powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia today as rescuers struggled to reach survivors of the previous day’s shock which is feared to have killed thousands.

The official death toll was put at over 500, but rescuers said it would rise with thousands more trapped under collapsed buildings.

The latest, 6.8-magnitude quake damaged hundreds of additional buildings, and communications remained cut in some areas.

“Let’s not underestimate (the disaster). Let’s be prepared for the worst. We will do everything we can to help the victims,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in Jakarta before flying to Padang.

The president ordered the military to deploy all its crisis centres in Jakarta, West Sumatra and North Sumatra provinces and said the military will provide earth-moving equipment to clear the rubble.

Padang became the immediate focus of rescue efforts. At least 500 buildings in the city collapsed or were badly damaged in the first quake, which also started fires.

Terrified residents who spent a restless night, many sleeping outdoors, were jolted by the new quake this morning.

The US Geological Survey said it hit about 150 miles south of Padang. It damaged 1,100 buildings, including mosques and homes, in Jambi.

In Padang, collapsed or seriously damaged buildings included hospitals, mosques, a mall and a school.

Parents of missing students stayed up all night, waiting for signs of life.

At least 80 people were missing at the five-storey Ambacang hotel in downtown Padang, said Indra, a paramedic who uses only one name. Rescuers, working in heavy rain, found two survivors and nine bodies in the rubble.

Indonesia, a poor, sprawling nation, sits on a major geological fault zone and is frequently hit by earthquakes. The latest quakes were along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

Geologists said the Indonesia quakes were not related to the other deadly quake that hit islands in the South Pacific.