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The injured
are treated outside a hospital in Aceh on July 2, 2013 after
the area was hit
by an earthquake (AFP, Fikri Ramadhavi)
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BLANG
MANCUNG, Indonesia — Rescuers battled through landslides and blocked roads
Wednesday to reach survivors from an earthquake in Indonesia's Aceh province
that killed at least 24 people, including several children who died when a
mosque collapsed.
Almost 250
people were also injured in Aceh's remote, mountainous interior when the strong
6.1-magnitude quake struck the north of Sumatra island on Tuesday, flattening
buildings and triggering landslides.
The quake,
which struck at a shallow depth of just 10 kilometres (six miles), has sparked
panic in the natural disaster-prone region where more than 170,000 people were
killed by the quake-triggered tsunami of 2004.
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Indonesia quake (AFP Graphic)
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Rescuers
dug all night with an excavator through the rubble of the mosque looking for
more children but a local disaster agency official said late Wednesday he did
not believe that anyone else was buried.
As 16
aftershocks rocked Aceh late Tuesday, around 700 people from the village and
its surrounding areas took refuge in makeshift shelters, the national disaster
agency said.
Those who
remained dug through the rubble of their collapsed houses with bare hands to
search for their belongings, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Bodies of
the dead were laid out and covered in blankets at a makeshift emergency health
post in the village.
"This
is the biggest earthquake we've ever had here," Subhan Sahara, head of the
district's disaster agency, told AFP.
"People
are still frightened, especially after the aftershocks last night. Nobody dared
to stay at home. Everyone slept on the roads or in car parks.
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Quake
survivors are treated at an Aceh
hospital on July 2, 2013 (AFP, Reza
Juanda)
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The main
hospital in the district was overwhelmed and tents had been set up outside to
treat the flood of patients, he said, adding that food and water were in short
supply.
Military,
police and local government officials were trying to head to affected areas by
ground and in aircraft but some roads were blocked by landslips, the national
disaster agency said.
"Bad
phone communications, damage to several roads, and landslides are making rescue
efforts difficult," said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
The agency
dispatched a helicopter from neighbouring Riau province to assist in rescue
efforts, while an air force plane was also deployed to assess the damage.
"We
have recorded 24 people dead and 249 people injured," said Nugroho, adding
that 375 buildings had been destroyed or damaged.
The
casualties were spread over the two worst-hit districts of Central Aceh and
Bener Meriah, he said. Scores of people were being treated at hospitals across
the region.
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Frightened
people gather outside their
homes after a quake shook Aceh on
July 2, 2013
(AFP, Reza Juanda)
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"There
were strong aftershocks last night and people didn't want to go back home, so
they stayed in the open overnight, but we don't have enough tents," said
the official, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
"We
have a power outage now and communications are unreliable," he added.
People ran
outside in the provincial capital Banda Aceh as the quake -- some 320
kilometres (200 miles) away -- shook houses, and in Medan city to the south of
the province.
Aceh, on
the northern tip of Sumatra, is regularly hit by quakes. The huge
quake-triggered tsunami of 2004 not only killed tens of thousands in the
province, but also many in countries around the Indian Ocean.
In April
last year an 8.6-magnitude quake struck 431 kilometres off Banda Aceh, leaving
five dead in the province and prompting an Indian Ocean-wide tsunami alert.
Indonesia
sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide,
causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
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