Trapped quake victim sends text message

An earthquake survivor trapped in a collapsed hotel in western Indonesia sent a text message saying he and some others were alive, triggering a frantic rescue operation, but hopes faded today as sniffer dogs failed to detect life.

Padang’s police chief said voices and claps were heard from survivors buried in the Ambacang Hotel since Wednesday’s 7.6-magnitude quake, which killed at least 715 people. He said one survivor – who had been staying in Room 338 – sent a text message to relatives Friday, saying he and some others were still alive.

“We estimate there are still eight people trapped alive under Ambacang Hotel,” Col Boy Rafli Amar told reporters. “We are still trying hard to evacuate them.” After more than six hours of searching, Amar said: “so far rescuers have found nothing.”

As he spoke, rescuers used backhoes and drills to try to break a passage through thick slabs of concrete of the six-storey hotel.

Hidehiro Murase, the head of a Japanese search dog team, said its search had been fruitless.

“We did an extensive search this morning, but there were no signs of life. Our dogs are trained to smell for living people, not the dead, and they didn’t sense anything,” he said.

Six Swiss rescuers entered the rubble through a hole but came out minutes later.

“I haven’t seen any sign of bodies yet, but the stench filling the air is very strong,” said one of them, Villa Stefano, wiping sweat and dust from his face.

The quake devastated more than 60 miles along the western coast of Sumatra island, prompting a huge international aid operation in a country that sits on a major geological fault zone and has dozens of quakes every year.

The United Nations estimated the death toll could rise to 1,100. More than 20,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and 2,400 people hospitalised across seven district, said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

Block after block of toppled hotels, hospitals, office buildings and schools had yet to be searched in Padang, a port city of 900,000. Dozens of unclaimed corpses were laid out in the scorching sun at Dr M. Djamil General Hospital, Padang’s biggest, which was damaged in the quake.

Eric van Druten, a 31-year-old Australian surfer, said several of his friends were staying at the Ambacang and another hotel. He said he ran toward the swimming pool when the earthquake began to shake the building.

“But the wall collapsed, so we had to get out. There is still a heap of people in the pool,” he said.

While the damage was most severe around Padang, one reporter saw virtually no remaining structures in the rural, hilly district of Pariaman, a community of about 370,000 about 50 miles to the north.

Landslides had wiped away roads and there was no sign of outside help.