Rescue workers on Sunday searched frantically for survivors from the earthquake in central Indonesia that killed more than 3Â 300 people and left 200Â 000 homeless.
A day after a 6,2 magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s main island of Java, grieving relatives buried their dead, hospitals overflowed with bloodied and bruised casualties, and aid workers rushed in food and medical supplies.
With whole villages reduced to rubble, the death toll was expected to climb as rescuers dug to reach those trapped or dead under the wreckage of their homes following the nation’s worst catastrophe since the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Tens of thousands spent the night without shelter, with the Indonesian Red Cross saying at least 200Â 000 people had been displaced.
Others, fearing more aftershocks, set up makeshift shelters along rural roads or in their yards.
The true human toll of Saturday’s disaster will never be known because many bodies were buried almost immediately, according to tradition, where they died rather than being taken to mortuaries.
Wahyu (19) and his sister Rini (16) buried their parents behind their house. “Why waste time taking them to a hospital?” said Rini. “We knew they were dead. We thought it was more important to give them as dignified a burial as possible. We aren’t too worried if they don’t appear in the official statistics.”
The worst affected area was Bantul, a district about 13km south of Yogyakarta, where more than two thirds of the fatalities occurred. Thousands of buildings were flattened and most of those remaining will have to be destroyed, say survivors.
“We’re terrified, we’re confused, we don’t know what to think or do,” said Inti Kalah, clutching her sleeping three-week-old daughter Safa.
“We’ve got no clean water, no food,” Rani Indrawati, Inti’s neighbour in the village of Bagulon Kulon, said. “No one has come to help us so we’re going to eat air to survive.”
Survival was often a matter of chance, as Wahyu explained. “We ran out of the back door. Our parents were in the front room so they ran out of the front door. They were both killed when the neighbour’s house fell on top of them.”
The two hospitals in the district were overflowing with casualties. Patients were in the corridors, in the gardens and even the street outside amid a forest of intravenous drip stands. The luckier patients were lying on mattresses or stretchers but most were on thin mats, flattened cardboard boxes or lying directly on bloodstained and dust-strewn floors.
Power remained out across much of southern Java, hampering rescue efforts. Officials said the death toll stood at 3Â 340, with 2Â 615 people killed in Yogyakarta province and 725 lives lost in the Klaten district of neighbouring Central Java province.
More than 10Â 000 people were injured and the number could be far higher, Vice-President Yusuf Kalla told the BBC, saying that hospitals were struggling to cope.
“The medicine is not enough,” he said, adding that about 5Â 000 Indonesian troops were expected to arrive in the quake zone’s main city of Yogyakarta later in the day to help with the rescue efforts.
The injured were crammed inside hospitals but many lay wounded in car parks, either in hastily pitched tents or in the open air.
In a field in flattened Bantul, about 750 soldiers prepared to join the relief effort. Dozens of trucks and jeeps were at the ready, and five large tents had been pitched.
The top priority in the hardest-hit district was to “evacuate victims still trapped in the rubble, using heavy equipment”, said Gendut, a provincial health official there.
Dozens of army and civilian doctors and paramedics joined the effort to treat the injured. Scores of university students also volunteered for the relief effort.
As they distributed food, bottled water, tents, tarpaulins and baby kits to the affected population, Indonesian defence forces battled to repair cracks in Yogyakarta’s airport runway to speed the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Several aftershocks shook the region, further terrifying residents who are afraid to return to their homes.
The affected area is in the shadow of Mount Merapi, a volcano rumbling with molten lava for weeks, and 20Â 000 people had already been staying in emergency shelters amid fears of a eruption.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono raced to the area, urging rescuers to work around the clock and ordering the military to evacuate victims as soon as possible.
“The first priority is to save lives,” said Yudhoyono who was expected to spend several days in the area to oversee relief efforts.
The Jakarta government has earmarked 50-billion rupiah ($5,5-million) for relief operations around Yogyakarta, 400km from the capital Jakarta.
International aid agencies and foreign governments offered help.
“We have re-located staff to the earthquake zone and we are sending thousands of tents, tarpaulins, and lanterns, as well as water supply equipment,” Unicef executive director Kathryn Donovan in a statement.
Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and Norway despatched emergency medical teams to the stricken area.
Officials at both the Indonesian Red Cross and the European Union’s humanitarian aid service Echo made urgent appeals for surgical teams, medication and blood to be rushed to the quake-hit area.
The United States, Canada, China, Britain and France were among the countries who offered aid.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Indonesian people as they comfort all those affected by this terrible disaster,” US President George Bush said.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. – AFP