Indonesia quake kills 75, thousands trapped

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-01 00:40

PADANG, Indonesia: A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia on Wednesday, triggering landslides and trapping thousands under collapsed buildings - including two hospitals, an official said. At least 75 bodies were found, but the toll was expected to be far higher.

The temblor 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.

Indonesia quake kills 75, thousands trapped

People stand near a collapsed shopping mall after an earthquake hit Padang, on Indonesia's Sumatra island September 30, 2009. [Agencies]

Buildings swayed hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.

In the sprawling low-lying city of Padang, 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.

Map locating the Indonesian island of Sumatra. A powerful 7.9-magnitude quake struck off Indonesia's Sumatra island, destroying large buildings and starting fires in the major city of Padang.[Agencies]

The magnitude 7.6 quake occurred at 5:15 pm (1015 GMT, 6:15 a.m. EDT), just off the coast of Padang, the US Geological Survey reported. It occurred a day after 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 11 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 temblor flattened buildings and felled trees in Padang, damaged mosques and hotels and crushed cars. A foot could be seen sticking out from one pile of rubble. Residents fought some fires with buckets of water and used their bare hands to search for survivors even after darkness fell, 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."

Initial reports received by the government said 75 people were killed, but the real number is "definitely higher," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta. "It's hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout," he said.

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