<<<<>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8283599.stm
Aftermath of the earthquake in Sumatra was aired on Indonesia TV
Deliveries of aid are being sent to western Indonesia after a powerful earthquake which left at least 100 people dead.
The quake, with a magnitude of 7.6, triggered a landslide in Sumatra that blocked roads and cut power lines.
Hundreds of buildings, including hospitals, collapsed in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
Rescue workers say thousands of people could be buried under rubble and the number of dead is expected to rise.
Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Agency, said some 100 to 200 people had died in Padang and more than 500 houses and buildings had collapsed.
"Many people are staying outdoors and some people are staying in public facilities," he told Reuters.
Mr Kardono told the AFP news agency about 150 military personnel, as well as police and Health Ministry workers, were in the affected area, but they urgently needed heavy machinery to lift the rubble.
Earlier, Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's disaster centre in Jakarta, said there were "thousands of people trapped in the rubble of buildings".
He said a city hospital was among the ruined buildings.
The quake brought down telephone lines, severely affecting communications with the affected area and making it difficult to assess the scale of the damage.
The authorities said heavy rain was hampering the rescue attempt.
Burning buildings
The earthquake struck at 1716 local time (1016 GMT) some 85km (55 miles) under the sea, north-west of Padang, the US Geological Survey said.
 | MAJOR INDONESIAN QUAKES  26 Dec 2004: Asian tsunami kills 170,000 in Indonesia alone 28 March 2005: About 1,300 killed after a magnitude 8.7 quake hits the coast of Sumatra 27 May 2006: Quake hits ancient city of Yogyakarta, killing 5,000 17 July 2006: A tsunami after a 7.7 magnitude quake in West Java province kills 550 people  |
Witnesses said residents ran out of buildings in Padang - which has a population of 900,000 - and surrounding cities.
Jane Liddon, an Australian businesswoman in Padang, told Australian radio many large buildings in the town had been severely damaged.
"The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned," she said.
"A lot of people died in there. A lot of places are burning."
But Ms Liddon said many smaller residential properties had escaped the damage.
Australia has offered to send emergency assistance to Indonesia if needed.
LIMA (Reuters) - A magnitude 5.9 quake struck southeastern Peru on Wednesday near Bolivia's capital of La Paz, but it was not felt by witnesses and mines in the area.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially reported a 6.3 magnitude quake but later downgraded it. The temblor was 100 miles northwest of La Paz and fairly deep -- some 155.5 miles below the surface.
An official at the nearest big Peruvian mine, Xstrata's Tintaya, said the quake was not felt.
The temblor did not shake La Paz nor Peru's capital of Lima, people in those cities said.
There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties in Peru, a leading metals exporter.
(Reporting by Terry Wade in Lima, Editing by Sandra Maler)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
APIA, Samoa — Police in green reflective vests searched a ghastly landscape of mud-strewn streets, pulverized homes and bodies scattered in a swamp Wednesday as dazed survivors emerged from the muck and mire of an earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 119 in the South Pacific.
Military transports flew medical personnel, food, water and medicine to Samoa and American Samoa, both devastated by a tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake. A cargo plane from New Zealand brought in a temporary morgue and a body identification team.
Officials expect the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.
Survivors fled to higher ground on the islands after the magnitude 8.0 quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time (1:48 p.m. EDT; 1748 GMT) Tuesday. The residents then were engulfed by four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) high that reached up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland.
The waves splintered houses and left cars and boats — many battered and upside down — scattered about the coastline. Debris as small as a spoon and as large as a piece of masonry weighing several tons were strewn in the mud.
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