Maluku earthquake toll rises to 26

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)