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A collapsed house in earthquake hit Padang, on Indonesia's Sumatra island - Source: Reuters -
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Rescue teams combing the rubble in the shattered Indonesian city
of Padang said there was little hope of finding more survivors of a
massive earthquake that authorities say may have killed 3,000
people.
As relief workers pushed deeper into earthquake-hit Sumatra, they
found entire villages obliterated by landslides and homeless
survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.
"I am the only one left," said Zulfahmi, 39, who was in the village
of Kapalo Koto, near Pariaman, about 40 km north of Padang, with 36
family members when Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake triggered a
landslide.
"My child, my wife, my mother-in-law, they are all gone. They are
under the earth now."
Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, said that the
government estimated the death toll could reach 3,000, adding that
disease was becoming a concern, especially in Padang city, where a
pervading stench of decomposing bodies hangs over the ruined
buildings.
"We are trying to recover people from the debris, dead or alive. We
are trying to help survivors to stay alive. We are now focusing on
minimising post-quake deaths," she said.
In Padang, a port city of 900,000 that was once a centre of the
spice trade, rescuers picked through collapsed buildings to look
for perhaps thousands of people still buried.
"We are doing final checks before we can declare the rescue phase
is over. We think it's the end of the rescue phase," said British
rescue worker Peter Old, of Rapid UK.
"There's very little chance of finding people alive. It's the
beginning of a ramping down in rescue work."
The Chinatown area of Padang, consisting of a maze of ageing
shophouses, was devastated by the quake.
In the same area, hopes were fading of finding survivors in the
ruins of the Dutch-colonial era Ambacang Hotel, a landmark in a
town famous across Indonesia for its spicy cuisine and dramatic
curved roofs.
A person believed to be trapped in the building, where an insurance
company was holding a seminar, sent a phone text message on Friday
to a relative saying that eight people were still alive in the
ruins.
Buildings not quake-proof
Members of Padang's small Christian community prayed at an outdoor
mass and wedding on Sunday held after the 77-year-old Dutch built
St Theresa cathedral was badly damaged.
"The whole wall where the altar was located has collapsed at the
church," said Wim Sanuardi, an official at St Theresa.
Padang is known in predominantly Muslim Indonesia as a staunchly
devout area and a nearby mosque was also damaged.
"This tragedy, though causing a lot of suffering and death, is a
sign that God still loves the people of Padang. That's why we got a
reminder to correct our ways," said Mohammad Hatta, a Muslim who
was at the Abdul Ghani mosque helping clear rubble.
Mass funerals were also starting to take place on Sunday.
Padang lies on one of the most active faultlines in the world, but
a geologist said the city had been ill-prepared and remained at
risk of being wiped out in the next decade by a more powerful
earthquake.
"I think Padang is totally unprepared. Generally, the existing
structures are not designed to be quake-proof and that's why the
devastation is so great," said Danny Hilman Natawidjaja from the
Indonesian Science Institute.
Indonesia's Papua and the island of Sulawesi suffered smaller
quakes on Sunday, although there were no reports of damage.
In remoter areas, the scale of the disaster was still becoming
clear, with at least five villages swallowed by landslides. One
landslide hit a wedding party.
"In the villages in Pariaman, we estimate about 600 people died,"
said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis centre.
Pariaman, closer to the epicentre, is one of the
worst-affected.
"In one of the villages, there's a 20-metre-high minaret, it was
completely buried, there's nothing left, so I presume the whole
village is buried by a 30-metre deep landslide."
In another rural area, a resident said it was too late for
aid.
"Don't bother trying to bring aid up there," said Afiwardi, who
pointed past a landslide that cut off a road. "Everyone is
dead."
Indonesia's disaster agency said 20,000 buildings had been damaged
in the quake, with most government offices destroyed.
"Such widespread infrastructure damage will make it hard for the
city to bounce back," said Eko Suhadi, spokesman for the Indonesian
Red Cross.
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