Indonesia quake 'traps thousands'

At least 75 people have been confirmed dead and thousands are feared trapped under rubble after a powerful earthquake flattened hundreds of homes on Indonesia's Sumatra island, officials said.

Indonesia's vice-president said on Wednesday that the death toll was "certain" to rise as emergency workers search the wreckage of buildings in the coastal town of Padang.

"We have received a report from the mayor of Padang that the death toll is 75," Jusuf Kalla told a news conference in the capital, Jakarta.

"But many others are trapped in collapsed shops, building and hotels. It is difficult to know because it is dark now."

Extensive damageBridges were also destroyed and fires started, while some power and telecommunications links were cut, witnesses said. Metro Television reported the roof of Padang airport had collapsed.

"Part of the roof of the arrival hall at the Padang airport collapsed but nobody was injured. The runway is okay. The airport has been closed but will reopen at 7am tomorrow," Hariyanto, an official of airport operating company Angkasa Pura II, said.

Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster centre, said that a hospital was among the buildings that had been destroyed on Wednesday.

He said a field hospital was being prepared to assist the injured and medical teams were on their way from neighbouring provinces.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake, which hit just off the coast of Western Sumatra province early in the morning, also triggered a landslide which cut off land access to the town.

Thousands of people are expected to spend the night in the open before a full assessment of the damage can be made in the morning.

Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia's welfare minister, said authorities should prepare for the worst, adding damage could be on a par with an earthquake in Yogyakarta, central Java, in 2006 that killed 5,000 people and damaged or destroyed 150,000 homes.

'Very strong'

"The earthquake was very strong," Kasmiati, who lives on the coast near to the epicentre, told The Associated Press news agency.

"People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged," she said. "I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured."

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued regional tsunami warning following the earthquake, but the warning was cancelled soon afterwards.

The Indonesian earthquake came just hours after a series of tsunamis caused death and devastation on the Pacific island nations of American Samoa and Western Samoa.

Padang, the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world's most active fault lines along the "Ring of Fire", where the Indo-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate, creating regular tremors and sometimes earthquakes.

The low-lying city of about 900,000 people was badly hit by an 8.4 magnitude quake in September 2007, when dozens of people died and several large buildings collapsed.

"It is a city that has been under threat of a huge earthquake for quite a long time," Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said.

"Padang was sort of next on the list and experts have been warning of a major earthquake in that area for quite a long time. We travelled there a few years ago and saw that they did not seem prepared for any sort of major disaster."

In 2004, a 9.15 magnitude earthquake, with its epicentre roughly 600km northwest of Padang, caused a tsunami that killed 232,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.

Up to 1,000 killed

The earthquake struck at 5.16pm (10.16 GMT), 78 kilometres (48 miles) southwest of the city of Padang in West Sumatra, along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami.

According to US Geological Survey, it measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, just shy of the size of earthquake that sparked a tsumani, devastating the Pacific islands of American and Western Samoa to the east of Australia on Tuesday.

The shaking could be felt in high buildings in the capital, Jakarta, several hundred miles, and in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. A tsunami alert was sent out to countries along the Indian Ocean, prompting many to flee to higher ground.

The death toll was set at 75 within hours of the quake, but Health Ministry crisis centre head Rustam Pakaya warning it could exceed 1,000 in the city of close to one million residents.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla added: "It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout."

Thousands of people were trapped as buildings, roads and bridges collapsed. The earthquake also triggered a landslide which cut power and telecommunications, resulting in further confusion.

The crisis was exacerbated by the collapse of the city's main hospital and fires which broke out as power lines were severed.

Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie said authorities should prepare for the worst. He said damage could be on a par with an earthquake in the central Java city of Yogyakarta in 2006 that killed 6,000 people and damaged or destroyed 150,000 homes.

Three military transport planes in the capital were prepared to deliver aid including tents, blankets and medicine.

World Vision's Indonesian emergency head Jimmy Nadapdap said the charity would attempt to send out a disaster survey team to the affected area on Thursday morning.

"It is critical that we get people into the quake zone as soon as possible to find out what has happened," he said.

"If buildings have collapsed then people are likely to be in urgent need of food, water and especially shelter. The injured will also need medical assistance."

A resident of Padang city, Yuliarni, said the shaking was "the worst I have ever felt".

"Houses have collapsed, the lights and electricity were cut off, people were fleeing to higher ground and some were hurt," she said.

Padang, the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world's most active fault lines along the "Ring of Fire" where the Into-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular earth tremors.

Geologists warned that Padang was vulnerable to more quakes and tsunamis, and even a volcanic eruption.

"There will be aftershocks but it's difficult to predict whether there will be a bigger quake," the unnamed head of Indonesia's Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Centre said.

"There are three big volcanoes in West Sumatra – Merapi, Talang and Tandikat. We fear that this quake might cause volcanic eruptions there."

A 9.15 magnitude quake, with its epicentre roughly 600km (373 miles) northwest of Padang, caused the 2004 tsunami which killed 232,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.

Strong Indonesia quake kills

PADANG, Indonesia – A powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia trapped thousands of people under collapsed buildings — including hospitals, a hotel and a classroom, officials said. At least 200 bodies were found in one coastal city and the toll was expected to be far higher.

The temblor Wednesday started fires, severed roads and cut off power and communications to Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 on Sumatra island. Thousands fled in panic, fearing a tsunami.

The undersea quake of 7.6 magnitude was followed by a powerful, shallow inland earthquake on Thursday morning with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It hit about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Padang at a depth of just 24 kilometers (under 20 miles).

Shallow, inland earthquakes generally are more destructive, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injures.

On Wednesday, buildings had swayed hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

In Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, the shaking was so intense that people crouched or sat on the street to avoid falling. Children screamed as an exodus of thousands tried to get away from the coast in cars and motorbikes, honking horns.

At least 500 buildings in Padang collapsed or were badly damaged, said Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono, adding that 200 bodies had been pulled from the rubble there. The extent of damage in surrounding areas was still unclear due to poor communications, he said.

Padang's mayor appealed for assistance on Indonesian radio station el-Shinta.

"We are overwhelmed with victims and ... lack of clean water, electricity and telecommunications," Mayor Fauzi Bahar said. "We really need help. We call on people to come to Padang to evacuate bodies and help the injured."

Hundreds of people were trapped under collapsed buildings in Padang alone, including a four-star hotel, he said. Other collapsed or seriously damaged buildings included hospitals, mosques, a school and a mall.

Thousands were believed trapped throughout the province, said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis center.

"This is a high-scale disaster," Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told Metro TV.

Indonesian broadcaster TVOne showed footage of heavy equipment breaking through laters of a flattened 3-story cement building, where dozens or children had been taking classes. It said more than 30 children were missing and feared dead, but gave no source for the information.

Wednesday's quake struck just off the coast of Padang, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It occurred a day after a killer tsunami hit islands in the South Pacific and was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

A tsunami warning was issued Wednesday for countries along the Indian Ocean, but was lifted after about an hour; there were no reports of giant waves.

The shaking in Padang felled trees and crushed cars. A foot could be seen sticking out from one pile of rubble. At daybreak, residents used their bare hands to search for survivors, pulling at the wreckage and tossing it away piece by piece.

"People ran to high ground. Houses and buildings were badly damaged," said Kasmiati, who lives on the coast near the quake's epicenter.

"I was outside, so I am safe, but my children at home were injured," she said before her cell phone went dead. Like many Indonesians, she uses one name.

The loss of telephone service deepened the worries of those outside the stricken area.

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

Hospitals struggled to treat the injured as their relatives hovered nearby.

Indonesia's government announced $10 million in emergency response aid and medical teams and military planes were being dispatched to set up field hospitals and distribute tents, medicine and food rations. Members of the Cabinet were preparing for the possibility of thousands of deaths.

Local television reported more than two dozen landslides in the province. Some blocked roads, causing miles-long traffic jams of cars and trucks.

On Tuesday, a powerful earthquake off the South Pacific islands of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga — thousands of miles (kilometers) from Indonesia — spawned tsunami that killed more than 100 people. Experts said the seismic events were not related.