Thousands killed in Indonesia quake

Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A powerful earthquake struck around Indonesia's royal city of Yogyakarta on Saturday, killing more than 3,000 people as houses and buildings collapsed near ancient sites.

As darkness fell in the heartland of Indonesia's main island of Java, thousands prepared to spend the night outside ruined homes or in the grounds of mosques, churches and schools. "It's pitch dark. We have to use candles and we are sitting outside now. We are too scared to sleep inside," said Tjut Nariman, who lives on the outskirts of Yogyakarta.

The 6.2 magnitude quake struck at dawn and was the third major tremor to devastate Indonesia in 18 months, the worst being the quake on December 26, 2004 and its resulting tsunami.

An official at the social affairs ministry's disaster relief centre said at least 3,002 people were dead and more than 2,500 seriously injured in the quake on the south coast of Java island. The Indonesian Red Cross said some 200,000 people had been displaced. The death count was being updated almost by the hour.

One of the worst hit areas was the Bantul district in Yogyakarta, which accounted for more than 2,000 of the dead.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Bantul and Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said medical teams had been sent to the hardest-hit areas. The European Union, the United States, Japan and Unicef were among those announcing immediate aid.

An Indonesian Red Cross spokesman said five action teams had been dispatched to the area and 21 field hospital units were operating at full capacity.

Victims who survived went streaming into overwhelmed hospitals, bloodied and terrified, as tens of thousands more were left homeless around Yogyakarta. The area had already been on edge for weeks amid fears that the nearby volcano at Mount Merapi, rumbling with molten lava for weeks, would erupt. Yogyakarta's airport had to be closed due to a damaged runway.

TIMELINE
Major disasters to hit country

December 26, 2004: Nearly 132,000 Indonesians are killed and more than 37,000 listed as missing after a 9.15 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia and a tsunami triggered by it in the Indian ocean region. The global toll reaches nearly 230,000 dead with more than 43,000 missing.

February 21, 2005: At least 96 people are killed in landslide that sweeps through two West Java villages near a garbage dump.

March 28, 2005: Nearly 1,000 people are believed killed after quake of magnitude 8.7 hits the coast of Sumatra.

July 20, 2005: Indonesia confirms first deaths from bird flu, saying tests on a father and his two young daughters show they had virus. To date there have been 35 Indonesian deaths from bird flu, 24 of them this year.

September 5, 2005: Domestic airliner operated by local carrier Mandala Airlines crashes in residential area of Indonesia's third biggest city Medan, killing 102 aboard and 47 local residents in an inferno on the ground.

May 15, 2006: Mount Merapi volcano erupts with clouds of hot gas and rains ash on surrounding areas, sending some nearby villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

Twin nightmares

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Indonesia are closely linked, geologists say, because both are crated by a single force: the meeting of giant, shifting plates of the Earth's crust.

The increase in this tectonic activity, which is causing eruptions in Mount Merapi, was responsible for the earthquake, a UN geologist said.