Crucial aid began flowing into Indonesia's earthquake-devastated Nias island today as survivors combed rubble of buildings for loved ones and some, driven by hunger, looted food from shops.
On Nias, as many as 2,000 people are feared to have died and many more were believed trapped under the rubble. A UN statement said 500 people were confirmed dead on the island.
Injured survivors pleaded for help two days after a 8.7 magnitude earthquake destroyed large parts of the island.
Emergency aid began reaching the victims as Indonesian troops arrived to help in rescue and clearing efforts. Singaporean military helicopters were flying in food, water and medical supplies and evacuating the injured, witnesses said.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said many people were still trapped beneath the rubble. "It is estimated more than 1,000, or between 1,000 to 2,000, are dead, because there are still many people under the wreckage of the buildings. Also there are several small islands we are still evaluating," he told reporters in the capital, Jakarta.
An Indonesian disaster official said about 200-300 people died on the isolated Banyak island group just north of Nias. "But we have not received further information about the homeless and wounded," Nerli Sulitiani, a national disaster agency official in the northern city of Medan, said.
Monday's earthquake devastated a region that escaped major damage in the December 26th quake and tsunami disaster that left nearly 300,000 dead or missing along Indian Ocean shores.
The epicentre of Monday's quake was about 100 miles southeast of the bigger one three months ago. Large parts of Nias, famed as a surfing paradise, have been damaged and much of Gunungsitoli has been flattened.
Survivors used tools and bare hands to dig for loved ones. One man was pulled out from the rubble of his home by French firefighters, ending a 40-hour ordeal without food or water.
Officials said logistical problems were making it hard to help survivors on Nias, about 850 miles northwest of Jakarta. About 700,000 people live on the island.
The Banyak island group, with a population of around 5,000, is the closest land mass to the quake's epicentre but reports of damage there have been slow to emerge.