37 dead in Java tsunami

A powerful earthquake off the south coast of Indonesia's Java island today sent a tsunami several metres high crashing down on the resort village of Pangandaran, killing at least 37 people and leaving scores missing.

Witnesses said "very many" homes along the coast were destroyed and more substantial buildings suffered damage as two waves, the first about seven metres high and the second two metres, cascaded ashore. The water was reportedly waist-deep more than half a mile inland.

Power failed, fixed phone lines to the area were cut and many roads became impassable.

Five hours after the earthquake officials said the death toll was nine, although one witness told the Associated Press he had seen 20 corpses at a clinic. Scores were injured and hundreds were reportedly missing. The full extent of the damage was hard to assess because electricity had not been restored before nightfall. But no reports of major damage were received beyond Pangandaran.

Thousands of panicked residents in communities along Java's south coast immediately fled to higher ground and refused to come down for many hours, fearing further deadly waves.

"We felt the earthquake very strongly at about 3.20pm," Miswan, whose house was 50 metres from the coast, told the Elshinta radio station. "Then about half an hour later I saw in the distance out to sea very big waves coming towards the shore. They must have been about seven metres high.

"That's when we turned and fled as fast as we could."

"Many houses crashed to the ground straightaway," another witness, Kirsten, told television station SCTV. "The electricity went off immediately and we ran to higher ground as fast as we could. The water was still waist-deep 500 metres inland."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said two hours after the disaster that five people had been reported dead and about 60 others missing. He ordered the evacuation of everyone living in areas along the south-west coast considered at immediate risk of further tsunamis.

A police officer, quoted by Metro TV as Agus, said he had seen six corpses.

The epicentre of the 7.2-magnitude quake was about 150 miles off the south-west coast of Java. It was followed by two major aftershocks measured at 5.5 and 6.3 on the Richter scale and many smaller ones.

The tremors were felt as far away as the capital Jakarta, 120 miles north-west of Pangandaran.

A 9.2-earthquake off the north-west tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Boxing Day 2004 triggered a massive tsunami that killed more than 230,000 in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.

India issued a tsunami warning for its Andaman and Nicobar islands, which are located near Indonesia and were affected in the 2004 tragedy, officials said. Australia's Christmas Island was also thought to be at risk. By evening none of these places had reported a tsunami.

Another earthquake in May which measured at 6.2 on the Richter scale, devastated scores of villages in central Java, killing more than 5,000 people and leaving more than 1.25 million homeless.

All the earthquakes were on the same fault line, where the Indo-Australian and the Eurasian plates meet.

President Yudhoyono wanted Indonesians that much of the nation was at risk of earthquakes and it was likely there would be further such tragedies.

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