Indonesian Earthquake Death Toll Passes 100
Jakarta, December 9 (RHC)-- Indonesian medical teams struggled on Thursday to treat scores of people injured in a 6.5 magnitude earthquake a day after more than 100 people were killed in the worst disaster to hit the province since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The quake toppled hundreds of buildings and left thousands of people homeless. The province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, has declared a two-week state of emergency.
"All the victims were crushed in collapsed buildings," said Sutopo Nugroho, a spokesman for the national disaster management agency. Rescuers in Aceh's Pidie Jaya regency focused their search on a market complex, which suffered more damage than other parts of the town of 140,000.
Indonesia's disaster agency said 102 people had been killed, with more than 700 injured.
The quake was the biggest disaster to hit the province since a December 26, 2004, quake and tsunami, which killed more than 120,000 people in Aceh. In all, the 2004 tsunami killed 226,000 people along Indian Ocean shorelines.
Indonesia sits on the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire' and more than half of its 250 million people live in quake-prone areas, according to the disaster agency.
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