Indonesia Quake Kills Thousands Peoples
The magnitude 6.2 quake also triggered heightened activity in the region's deadly Mount Merapi volcano, which has been spewing out clouds of hot ash, gas and lava for several weeks, a scientist said.
The quake struck at 5:54 a.m. 15 miles southwest of the city of Yogyakarta, causing damage and casualties there and in at least two other nearby population centers, officials said.
At the city's Sardjito hospital, there were at least 36 dead bodies, a staffer at the morgue said. At least 10 corpses were laying in Bethseda hospital, state news agency Antara quoted the hospital director as saying.
(CNN) -- More than 180 people have died and hundreds more have been injured after a strong earthquake rocked the southern coast of Indonesia's central Java island early Saturday, authorities said.
Authorities from several hospitals in the city of Yogyakarta told CNN that at least 182 people have died and as many as 650 have been injured.
Health care providers and hospitals have been overwhelmed, and the casualty figures are expected to rise.
Many people fearing aftershocks and more structural damage have left their dwellings.
The 6.2-magnitude quake struck just before 6 a.m. Saturday (7 p.m. ET Friday) about 25 kilometers (16 miles) southwest of Yogyakarta, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
An Indonesian meteorologist said the shallow quake did not cause a tsunami.
Search-and-rescue teams in Yogyakarta said they saw extensive damage to buildings and homes and that some communications were down. (Watch an eyewitness account of damage to Yogyakarta -- 3:13)
The area is home to the erupting volcano Mount Merapi, and has evacuation centers and emergency personnel in place.
Brook Weisman-Ross, disaster coordinator for Plan International, told CNN he was "shaken rather violently from my bed with furniture flying and chunks of concrete falling from the walls of my hotel room."
Outside, Ross said he saw large cracks in the walls of the hotel and other buildings in the area. As he rushed across town to check on his staff, he saw small, older buildings with collapsed roofs or walls.
"People here reported that this was the largest earthquake they had ever felt in their lives in this area," he said.
Ross also said he felt a number of aftershocks.
A witness in the city told The Associated Press he had seen three bodies under the rubble of two houses and that scores of injured were being taken to the city's hospitals in pickup trucks.
Electricity and communications across the city were also down, police said.
Shortly before the quake, nearby Mount Merapi, which has been rumbling for weeks, sent out a massive cloud of hot gas and ash. It was not immediately clear if the eruption and the earthquake were linked, or if the eruption had caused any casualties, according to AP..
Activity at Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, has picked up in recent weeks and almost all villagers living near the danger zone have been evacuated, AP reported.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
JAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia’s Central Java province early Saturday, killing at least 309 people, injuring scores, and flattening buildings.
More than 2,700 people have been killed and thousands more injured by a strong earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Java, officials have said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5022558.stm
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A powerful earthquake killed at least 2,901 people in Indonesia, government officials said on Saturday.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- A powerful earthquake killed at least 3,002 people in Indonesia, government officials said on Saturday