Death toll of Sumatran quake reaches 78

JAKARTA (JP): The earthquake which rocked the Kerinci regency in Jambi over the weekend has claimed 78 lives, according to the latest information reported yesterday.

The earthquake struck the mountainous area early Saturday morning, seriously injuring nearly 700 people, Sofyan Edward, an official handling the disaster, told The Jakarta Post last night.

He said that over 1,300 people were also slightly injured, 4,146 houses were destroyed and about 5,000 other buildings damaged in the earthquake that registered seven on the Richter scale.

Food

Reports said the tremor also shook Riau and Singapore.

Yesterday four military helicopters and a Hercules transport plane landed at the Sultan Thaha airport in Jambi with food and 40 doctors. They proceeded directly to the disaster area located near the 3,805-meter-high Mount Kerinci.

The Antara news agency said aid for the earthquake victims continued to flow into the city yesterday. It came from the central government, the provincial administration, private companies and the public in general.

Meanwhile, the situation at the refugee camps near the affected area still looked gloomy yesterday.

"I could not save my child during the quake," Juhariah, a resident of Kemantan Darat village, told Antara.

"I was really panic stricken because everything suddenly became chaotic and the electric lights suddenly went off," she added.

"I heard repeated thundering sounds which were followed by houses collapsing," her neighbor Mujahidin recounted.

Another neighbor, Mantra, said the entire family living next door to him was killed in the quake.

The six relatives who tried to help them were also buried under the ruins, he said.

Matra himself almost lost his granddaughter when she got sandwiched between the walls of their crumbling house.

"My neighbors managed to drag her out by her hand," he said.

Residents of Mukai Tinggi village, which is located on the slope of the mountain, also dragged the dead body of Lungguk, a 50-year-old villager, from the ruins.

Normal

He was found with his daughters Noni, 12, and Lina, 10, in his arms. All of them were dead. Their mother was saved because she was sleeping in another room when the disaster struck.

In the town of Sungai Penuh, the largest in the regency, life was slowly retuning to normal yesterday. Some people had even opened their shops.

Meanwhile, the Meteorology and Geophysics Office announced here that a mild earthquake was felt in Jakarta and the West Java town of Sukabumi yesterday. No damage was reported after the earthquake registered 5.2 on the Richter scale. (tis)