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Indonesia - earthquakes
Thousands feared dead as powerful aftershock shakes Sumatra
Article published on the 2009-10-01 Latest update 2009-10-01 15:28 TU
A collapsed shopping mall in Padang after Wednesday's earthquake, 30 September 2009
(Photo: Reuters)
Another powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra Thursday, an aftershock to Wednesday’s quake, where at least 770 people have so far been confirmed dead and 105 injured. Officials predict the death toll from Wednesday’s 7.6 magnitude quake will be far higher.
"Our prediction is that thousands have died," Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry’s crisis centre, told the AFP news agency.
Officials did not report any casualties from Thursday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake, though the death toll is rising from Wednesday’s disaster, which destroyed buildings and sparked fires in Padang city.
The first flights bringing food, medicine and body bags have arrived in the area.
Rescue workers are looking for survivors in surrounding towns along the coast, which have been cut off. These towns and villages are without power and communications.
Thursday’s quake was a powerful aftershock, which the US Geological Survey measured at 6.8 on the Richter scale of ten. Where the original quake centred underwater, this one hit on land some 225 kilometres southeast of Padang.
Seismologists say there is no connection between the Sumatra quakes and the deadly earthquake in the Pacific islands of Samoa, thousands of kilometres to the east.
All these islands are part of a formation geologists call the Ring of Fire, an arc of seismic activity that stretches from Indonesia, across the Pacific to the coast of Chile, with regular earthquakes and volcanoes.
 Earthquake death toll soars |
