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Special report: Earthquake in Indonesia
JAKARTA, May 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 10,000 people have been injured in a powerful
earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Java early Saturday
morning, Vice President Yusuf Kalla said on Sunday.
"The wounded are more than 10,000, 20,000, we don't know yet exactly,"
Kalla told BBC radio, adding that the figure could be far higher, as more damage
and casualty reports came in.
He attributed the heavy casualties to the stone construction of houses in
the quake zone. Official tallies show at least 3,000 people were killed in the
quake.
Hospitals were struggling to cope with the disaster, said Kalla, adding that international
aid was expected to begin arriving later Sunday.
Meanwhile, some 5,000 Indonesian troops were expected to arrive in the quake
zone's main city of Yogyakarta later in the day to help with the rescue
operations, he said.
The quake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck the densely populated
area near the city of Yogyakarta along Java's southern coast and caused severe
damage to buildings in surrounding areas, including the towns of Klaten, Bantul
and Kulon.
On Saturday, Indonesia's Ministry of Social Affairs put the death toll at
3,100.
The Red Cross estimated that some 200,000 people have been displaced in the
quake, the country's worst disaster since the December 2004 tsunami that killed
131,000 people on Sumatra. Enditem |