KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 30 people were killed and hundreds of houses and vehicles were destroyed in states of Penang, Kedah and Perlis by a tidal wave set off by a powerful earthquake that struck the north of the Indonesian islandof Sumatra Sunday.

    Most of the dead were among people picnicking and angling alongthe beaches at Batu Ferringhi and Balik Pulau on Penang Island when the tidal wave hit at about 1:30 p.m.

    A spokesman at the Penang Hospital morgue said it had received 11 bodies from Batu Ferringhi while a spokesman of the Balik PulauHospital morgue said it also had 11 bodies brought in from Balik Pulau.

    Another seven bodies were found at Kuala Muda in Kedah State where the tsunami roared through nine villages and destroyed about1,000 houses.

    A nine-year-old boy, Mohd Azwan Azhar, died after a boat carrying him, his father and two younger brothers back from a fishing trip was capsized by the tidal wave at Telok Air Tawar in Butterworth.

    Penang police deputy chief Mohd Ali Mohd Yusof said more than 30 people were injured by the tidal wave. He said the search for other victims was continuing.

    Meanwhile, Kuala Muda district police chief Law Hoong Soon toldreporters the search for victims among the ruins of homes in villages engulfed by the wave was being carried out.

    The search team was made up of 120 personnel from the police, Fire and Rescue Department, Civil Defense Department and military.

    Law said most of the victims were elderly people who were unable to save themselves when the tidal wave crashed on their houses.

    He said six villages with about 700 residents were the worst-hit and the survivors had been evacuated to relief centers set up in four schools.

    The quake that rocked Medan and Acheh in eastern and northern Sumatra at about 8:00 a.m. West Indonesian time (9:00 a.m. Malaysian time) was measured at 6.4 on the Richter scale by the Indonesian Geophysics and Meteorology Office, but China recorded the quake as strong as 8.7 and the United States 8.9 on the Rechter scale. Enditem