Indonesia: Rescuers raced to pull survivors from collapsed buildings and deliver urgently needed food and water yesterday as strong aftershocks rattled earthquake-devastated islands in northern Indonesia.
Nearly three days after the huge quake, several people were pulled alive from the rubble of their homes, but they were greatly outnumbered by dead bodies, and aid officials warned the toll could rise as rescuers reach remote areas.
French firefighters on Nias island pulled a woman from the rubble of her home alive early in the morning, Australia's Seven Network television showed.
"Hot, hot," the woman, identified as Suri, said after being pulled out. "My daughter and my sister are dead."
Rescuers also pulled an 11-year-old boy from the wreckage of a five-storey building, his only injury a small cut on his toe.
Three or four international rescue teams, Singaporeans and volunteers from places such as Norway, along with hundreds of Indonesian troops, are scouring the rubble looking for survivors.
As many as 2,000 people are feared to have died, many of them trapped under the rubble, according to Indonesian officials. Several hundred people are reported to have died on the isolated Banyak island group just north of Nias. Simeulue island, also to the north of Nias, suffered widespread damage as well.
Aid officials said relief supplies were flowing better, but water and food remained in short supply, and many roads were impassable due to quake damage.
"There's very little water, and people are panicking," Jude Barrand, spokeswoman for SurfAid International, said in Medan city.
The UN's World Food Programme estimated that 200,000 Nias residents would need food aid for about two months.
The International Organisation for Migration, which is sending 25 truckloads of food and other relief supplies to the island, said nearly 20,000 people were without drinking water.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, facing his second major disaster after December's Indian Ocean tsunami left more than 220,000 Indonesians dead or missing, arrived on Nias yesterday and told residents his government would help them.
At least three aftershocks rocked the area off the west coast of Sumatra island, one of them was measured at 6.3 on the Richter scale by the Hong Kong observatory.
Hungry survivors who fled to the hills for fear of massive waves similar to the Indian Ocean tsunami were returning to the main town in Nias, Gunungsitoli. But many were too scared to stay inside buildings.
Grieving residents on the mostly Christian island buried their friends and relatives in makeshift coffins.
A contingent of Australian medics has arrived on the island. Three Singaporean Chinook helicopters ferried the worst injured off the island to the Sumatran mainland.
The US Navy hospital ship Mercy and supply ship Niagara Falls, which carries three helicopters, were expected to arrive off Nias in about six days. Japanese medics are also due soon.
"The damage is huge, but at this stage we cannot calculate the cost," Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, who is visiting Nias, said.