Indonesian death toll in quake passes 4,400, national

Jakarta (dpa) - Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared three days of national mourning Monday as the death toll from a massive earthquake off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra climbed past 4,400 and rescue workers continued searching the most devastated province of Aceh.

In Banda Aceh, capital of the country's northernmost province, about 3,000 people were killed in the quake-triggered tsunami that swept away thousands of residents. Several hundred fatalities were reported from a number of other districts across the province. Many of those killed were children and elderly.

The rising death toll easily made the quake, which hit Sunday morning and was accompanied by gigantic tidal waves, the worst earthquake disaster in Indonesian history.

Yudhoyono declared the region a disaster area and was scheduled to fly to Banda Aceh from the easternmost province of Papua, where he had spent Christmas with victims of another deadly quake that struck in late November, killing nearly 30 people.

"To remember the massive number of victims, I call for three days of national morning,'' the Indonesian president was quoted as saying from the Papuan capital of Jayapura by the state-run Antara news agency. "We will hoist flags half mast.''

Thousands of military, police and rescue workers were dispatched to Aceh, as authorities feared the death toll could rise further when reports were received from across the province, 1,750 kilometres northwest of Jakarta.

"I saw that all facilities here in the province were either totally destroyed or heavily damaged,'' said one reporter who arrived early Monday in Aceh just after the Banda Aceh airport reopened.

Most communication links to and from Banda Aceh were still not functioning on Monday, one-day after the massive quake was unleashed deep below the Indian Ocean, sending deadly gigantic waves slamming into coastlines across countries in southern Asia.

In addition to the deaths, hundreds of thousands of homeless people were forced to spend the night outdoors, or take refuge on higher ground and in mosques and tents, while hundreds of others were injured. In Lhokseumawe, a district town in North Aceh, more than 50,000 people were housed in temporary shelters in a number of government buildings or in plastic tents in open fields.

The quake registered 6.8 on the Richter scale, according to Indonesia's Meteorological Institute office in Jakarta. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the tremor at a magnitude of 9.0, making it the world's most powerful earthquake in four decades.

Aftershocks continued to rattle Aceh province, with a tremor measuring 5.7 shaking the province at 4:06 a.m. Monday, an official said. "As many as 60 aftershocks struck Aceh and North Sumatra province with the strongest one taking place at dawn Monday.''

Officials have said the death toll could rise further once communication is resumed with many remote areas, and many expressed hope that relief supplies would soon reach survivors after flights were due to resume soon at a major airport in Aceh.

Witnesses in Banda Aceh said the quake triggered tidal waves that reached the height of coconut trees, sweeping away thousands of houses and damaging hundreds of others, as well as cut power and telephone communications.

A reporter with MetroTV said from Aceh's capital that dozens of bodies were piling up along roadsides, while rescue workers continued combing for and carrying out bodies from under the debris of flattened buildings.

"It was impossible to count how many bodies there are. They're scattered everywhere, on the roadsides of streets of the city,'' the reporter said.

Television footage from the ravaged province showed bodies of infants and mostly elderly females scattered and laying on hospital floors and other sites. Other witnesses said after water receded in some areas, they saw bodies hanging in the branches of trees.

Along the coastline of Aceh province, wooden houses lay crushed and tossed aside while vehicles were scattered in rivers and ravines.

In the North Aceh district of Bireuen, more than 3,000 homes along the 80-kilometre coastal area were swept away, while roads to other parts of Sumatra were cut off.

In the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, thousands of homes and buildings collapsed or suffered major damage, including a major hotel. Banda Aceh's airport was closed until early Monday, while telephone communications to outlying districts were cut off.

More than 600 people were killed in Northern Aceh, with more than 300 others listed as missing and feared killed by tidal waves that devastated most villages in coastal areas, local officials said.

A doctor in the nearby district town of Lhokseumawe said at least 131 bodies were found after the tsunami swept away homes, while 100 others were still missing and feared dead. More than 120 people were hospitalized.

Others were reported dead in East Aceh and other areas of neighboring North Sumatra province, including small islands off the western coast. On the island of Nias, the tsunami killed at least 43 people, while 32 others were listed as missing and feared drowned.

"Tidal waves washed many residents away,'' Major D.M. Ginting, deputy chief of Nias military district, told Metro TV.

Meteorology and geophysics officials said the quake occurred about 25 kilometres beneath the bed of the Indian Ocean, about 149 kilometres south of Meulaboh, on the southwestern coast of Aceh province.

Sunday's earthquake was the latest to rock Indonesia in recent weeks. In late November, an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the easternmost province of Papua, killing at least 29 people and destroying thousands of buildings.

On November 12, a 6.0 quake rocked the island of Alor, claiming 33 lives and injuring hundreds of others.

Indonesia is located in the Pacific Ocean's volcanic belt, the so-called "ring of fire'', where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. dpa eu sh ff blg