Maluku earthquake toll rises to 26

JAKARTA (JP): The death toll from a severe earthquake that struck the remote Tailabu and Mangole islands in Maluku on Sunday has risen to 26, with eight people still missing, Antara reported on Wednesday.

The body of 40-year-old La Abu was dug from the rubble of his house on Monday, as rescue workers searched for eight people they feared were swept away by tidal waves.

Rescuers identified one of the eight people still missing as Nurhayati, 40, from the East Tailabu district.

The seven others were from the West Taliabu district, the area that was the worst hit by the earthquake.

Up to 41 villages in two districts were devastated by Sunday's quake, which struck late Sunday night with a force of 6.5 on the Richter scale.

The tremor reduced almost 1,000 houses and buildings to rubble, cracked roads, brought down bridges and damaged a pier.

The epicenter was 33 kilometers under the sea near Mangole island, 380 kilometers south of Manado, North Sulawesi.

Communications to and from the islands of Taliabu and Mangole were almost entirely cut off after the earthquake.

Among those killed were five workers of the Barito Pacific Timber company, a woman who was swept off a pier and a young boy who was found in the ruins of a collapsed house.

Some 80 people were reportedly injured, those with serious injuries being evacuated by air and sea to Ambon and the North Sulawesi capital of Manado.

Meanwhile the Suara Pembaruan afternoon daily said that 984 houses and other buildings were damaged in the earthquake, and that hundreds of people had been evacuated to safer areas.

Aftershocks have forced many of the islands' 120,000 inhabitants to camp in fields away from their villages. (byg)