Saturday, May 27, 2006

More than 2000 people dead in Indo earthquake

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked Yogyakarta, central Java, Indonesia early this morning and so far it has killed more than 2000 people. From CNN:
The National Disaster Coordinating Agency said 2,091 of the deaths occurred in the area of Bantul, a district south of Yogyakarta near the Java coast. Deaths have also been reported in Yogyakarta and other communities.

Thousands of injuries have been reported, with 1,892 hurt in Bantul...

Search-and-rescue teams in Yogyakarta said they saw extensive damage to buildings and homes and noted that communications were down and electricity was out.

Weisman-Ross said he was "shaken rather violently from my bed with furniture flying and chunks of concrete falling from the walls of my hotel room."

Outside, Weisman-Ross said he saw large cracks in the walls of the hotel and other buildings in the area. As he rushed across town to check on his staff, he saw small, older buildings with collapsed roofs or walls.
The earthquake jolted the area where the active Mount Merapi is located. Scientists now say that the earthquake may intensify the volcanic activity of Mount Merapi. And if Merapi finally erupts within the next few days, I fear there will be more pain and chaos in Yogyakarta. The government of Indonesia may be overwhelmed if they have to deal with two natural disasters at the same time.

Update: Yahoo News has photos of the earthquake here.

Update: I will be talking to regular IZ Reloaded reader razzi who lives in South Yogyakarta, in 10 minutes time. Will post the interview with him later. Read it here.

Update: Channel NewsAsia says that one Singaporean woman is injured in Yogyakarta. Other Singaporeans there have been accounted for.

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