Powerful earthquake rocks Java, killing more than 3,500

BANTUL, Indonesia (CP) - Desperate relatives searched rubble for survivors Saturday after a powerful earthquake flattened nearly all the buildings in the rice-farming town Bantul while residents slept and killing more than 3,500 people on Indonesia's densely populated Java island. The magnitude-6.3 quake wounded thousands more and was Indonesia's worst disaster since the 2004 tsunami. It also triggered fears a rumbling volcano nearby would erupt.

The earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. local time near the famed Borobudur temple complex, caving in roofs and sending concrete walls crashing down. Thousands were wounded. Survivors screamed as they ran from their homes, some clutching bloodied children and the elderly.

The worst devastation was in Bantul, where 80 per cent of the homes were destroyed and more than 2,000 people killed. Residents started digging mass graves almost immediately, with family members sobbing and reading the Qur'an beside rows of corpses awaiting burial beneath a blazing sun.

Village heads recorded their names so the victims could be added to the official death toll. Subarjo, a 70-year-old food vendor, sobbed next to his dead wife, his house destroyed.

"I couldn't help my wife...I was trying to rescue my children, one with a broken leg, and then the house collapsed," he said.

"I have to accept this as our destiny, as God's will."

It was the most recent in a series of disasters to strike Indonesia - from the 2004 tsunami that ravaged Aceh province, to a widening bird flu outbreak to the threat of eruption from nearby Mount Merapi.

"On behalf of all Canadians, I wish to extend our sympathies to the families and friends of those who lost their lives and to those communities hit by this dreadful act of nature," Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement Saturday.

"I also want to reassure Canadians that my department and the Embassy of Canada in Jakarta are in contact with local authorities to determine if any Canadian citizens have been affected."

International Co-operation Minister Josee Verner announced Canada was immediately setting aside $2 million to assist victims in the region.

Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kim Girtel said Saturday there are approximately 30 Canadians registered in the affected region and the Canadian Embassy is trying to get in touch with those on the list.

"I am relieved to say that no Canadian death or injury has been reported to date but efforts to reach Canadians living in the area will continue," MacKay said in a telephone interview Saturday.

He added he planned to speak with his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirayuda, later in the day to determine how Canada can be most effective in assisting with relief efforts.

"That conversation will allow me to assess what further aid may be required, how the international community is responding and our most effective way to see that goods and water and food and aid is making it to the individuals who need it most," MacKay said.

As of Saturday afternoon, Girtel said the Indonesian government had not made a formal appeal for international assistance. A request would have to be made in order for Canada's disaster assistance response team, or DART, to be deployed to the region, as it was most recently during last fall's earthquake in Pakistan.

Girtel said officials from Foreign Affairs, National Defence and the Canadian International Development Agency will be heading to Indonesia on Sunday to provide support to the Canadian Embassy in Jakarta.

Canadian aid groups are also lending support to the relief effort.

The Canadian Red Cross said it's redirecting funds from its existing pool of resources to help Indonesia with immediate emergency needs.

The Red Cross said those interested in helping victims can make donations to the Canadian Red Cross International Disaster Relief Fund.

UNICEF said they have deployed emergency staff and supplies and the group is collecting donations by phone and online to help victims.

Dave Toycen, president and CEO of World Vision Canada, says an assessment team of between 10-12 people are heading to the affected region to survey the damage. A reserve of immediate emergency supplies is being distributed.

Toycen said World Vision Canada is looking at the possibility of sending emergency staff to the affected region. The group plans to raise $1 million in response to the earthquake.

Neighbouring Malaysia said it will send a 56-member search team, doctors and medical supplies and the European Commission said it would release the equivalent of up to $4 million Cdn in emergency aid.

The World Food Program was sending a plane with medicine and eight truckloads of fortified noodles and biscuits, agency spokeswoman Brenda Barton said in Rome.

The Italian government also loaded a plane with tents, blankets, water purifiers, electric generators and other aid, the Foreign Ministry said.

The United States responded with an emergency allocation of $500,000 for assistance to victims.

The quake's epicentre was 80 kilometres south of the rumbling Merapi volcano and activity increased soon after the quake. A large burst spewed hot clouds and sent debris cascading some three kilometres down its western flank.

Bambang Dwiyanto of the Energy and Mineral Ministry could not say whether the quake caused the volcanic activity but warned it could trigger a larger eruption.

"It will influence the activities of Mount Merapi, particularly in the lava dome," said Dwiyanto, head of the ministry's geological division.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Saturday's quake was centred about 10 kilometres below the surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Anthony Guarino of the CalTech Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said Indonesia has the second-highest number of erupted volcanos in historic time, outside of Japan. It also has the largest number of volcanos in the world - 76.

As night fell across the disaster zone - stretching across hundreds of square kilometres of mostly farming communities in Yogyakarta province - tens of thousands of people prepared to sleep on streets, in rice fields and in backyards, fearful of aftershocks.

Power and telephone service was out across much of the region, adding to their terror. After spending hours digging in vain through the smouldering debris, many said they were giving up their search for relatives or friends until morning.

"It's just too dark," said Sarjio, who was looking for his 40-year-old neighbour, believed to be trapped beneath the remains of her house. "There's nothing we can do now."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the army to evacuate victims and arrived with a team of cabinet ministers to oversee rescue operations. He slept in a tent camp with survivors.

At least 3,505 were killed in the quake, command post officials from the affected districts said. Two-thirds of the fatalities were in Bantul.

"The numbers just keep rising," said Arifin Muhadi of the Indonesian Red Cross, adding more than 3,400 people were hurt.

The only foreigner reported killed or injured in the quake was a man from Holland.

Yogyakarta is about 30 kilometres from the sea. In the chaos that followed the quake, false rumours of an impending tsunami sent thousands of people fleeing to higher ground in cars and on motorbikes.

The city is 2,237 kilometres southeast of Aceh province, where 131,000 people died in a December 2004 tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake under the sea.

Many roads and bridges were destroyed, hindering efforts to move taxis and pickup trucks filled with wounded to hospitals.

Doctors struggled to care for the injured, hundreds of whom were lying on plastic sheets, straw mats and even newspapers outside the overcrowded hospitals, some hooked to intravenous drips dangling from trees.

Bloodstains littered the floor at Yogyakarta's Dr. Sardjito Hospital, along with piles of soiled bandages and used medical supplies.

"We are short of surgeons," said Alexander, a doctor who goes by one name.

"There are still so many critically injured people here."

By nightfall, health officials at the hospital had tallied 89 dead but bodies kept arriving and some family members were taking them home before they could be added to the official toll.

Almost all people had already been evacuated away from the volcano's danger zone and there were no reports of injuries there. A geological researcher at the Indonesian Science Institute, Dani Hilman, said he did not believe the quake was powerful enough to create a large eruption.

The quake cracked the runway and waiting area at the Yogyakarta airport, closing it to aircraft until at least Sunday while inspections take place, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said.

Officials said the famed 7th-century Borobudur Buddhist temple, one of Indonesia's most popular tourist attractions, was not affected by the quake. Nearby Prambanan, a spectacular Hindu temple to the southeast, suffered some damage but it was not immediately clear how much, officials said.

Close to one million tourists visit the temples every year.

© The Canadian Press, 2006