Indonesia quake toll exceeds 1,000: official
YOGYAKARTA (Reuters) - More than 1,000 people are now known to have died in an earthquake that shook the area around Indonesia's ancient royal city of Yogyakarta early on Saturday, a government official and state media said.
The Antara news agency quoted Yogyakarta's police chief as giving a total death toll of over 1,400. Meanwhile Kinta, an official from the Social Ministry, told Elshinta news radio: "For the time being we recorded the total as 1,325 people."
She said the figure did not include people still buried or trapped under rubble of collapsed buildings.
Yogyakarta is on Indonesia's main island of Java and near Mount Merapi, a volcano that has been on top alert for a major eruption this month.
A vulcanologist in Yogyakarta said the quake was not caused by the volcano, but Merapi's activity increased after the shock.
"After the earthquake there were more clouds coming out of the crater," Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at the Center for Vulcanological Research and Technology Department, told Reuters.
The epicenter of the quake -- which struck just before 6 a.m. (2300 GMT) with a magnitude of 6.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey -- was offshore. Jakarta earthquake center official Fauzi said there was no tsunami.
Yogyakarta is about 25 km (16 miles) north of the Indian Ocean coast and 440 km (275 miles) east of Jakarta.
Hospital officials said the dead had generally suffered head injuries and broken bones from collapsing buildings.
"Most of them have wounds on their heads. The flow is not going down. The numbers are going to escalate," Subandi from the Bethesda hospital morgue in Yogyakarta told Reuters by telephone.
Witnesses said thousands of houses had collapsed in the quake. Office and government buildings were also in ruins.
Hospital patients had been moved outside due to fears of aftershocks. One Yogyakarta hospital alone said it was treating 1,500 people injured by the quake.
Yogyakarta's airport was closed with a damaged runway, transportation minister Hatta Rajasa told local radio. Access to the city by road was difficult.
Thousands of residents were taking refuge in Yogyakarta's main square while others sheltered in the compounds of scores of mosques, churches and hospitals throughout the region.
"We're still afraid. We don't want to go home," said Hendra, one of hundreds who took refuge at Yogyakarta's Marganingsih Catholic Church.
Jakarta earthquake center official Fauzi put the quake's strength at 5.8 and said the epicenter was in the sea about 50 km (31 miles) south of Yogyakarta at a depth of 33 km (21 miles).
There was widespread panic in Bantul, where at least 10 people were killed and hundreds hurt, and a desperate need for more doctors and nurses to treat the injured, said Kardi, the information officer for the hospital there.
A Reuters witness in Yogyakarta said many people there had fled their homes while thousands from areas near the city were trying to get into it to take refuge, many fearing a tsunami.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who planned to visit the area on Saturday to survey the damage, said:
"I heard there has been panic among residents in Yogyakarta due to inaccurate information such as a tsunami ... therefore I call on the regional government to continue giving accurate information,"
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said medical teams had been sent to the hardest-hit areas where a shortage of doctors and medicines were reported.
"This is very serious ... medical teams are on their way to the south where they need it most," Supari told El Shinta radio.
Yogyakarta's royal palaces and the nearby Borobudur temple complex are prime attractions for domestic and foreign tourists, and many foreigners study the Indonesian language at schools in the city which offer intensive courses.
Indonesia sits on the Asia-Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire" marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity.
Vulcanologist Subandrio said the hot, dense gas clouds, which local residents call "shaggy goats", coming out of Mount Merapi after the quake stretched 4 km (2.5 miles) down the mountainside. They reached 6 km (3.75 miles) before Merapi's last major eruption.
(Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia, Achmad Sukarsono and Tomi Soetjipto in Jakarta)
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