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400 buried alive at wedding party in Indonesia quake

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-03 17:26

PADANG: The powerful 7.6 magnitude quake that hit West Sumatra province on Wednesday evening had sunken three villages in the province, where 400 people in one of the sunken villages were buried alive when they were attending a wedding party, Indonesian crisis center official said here on Saturday.

Related readings:  2nd quake shakes Indonesia after temblor kills 529  Quake toll in Indonesia reaches 467  Strong Indonesia quake kills 200, traps thousands  Indonesia quake kills 75, traps thousands

Indonesian Health Ministry's Crisis Center Rustam Pakaya said that the rescue team was only able to discover 26 bodies from at least 400 victims in Pulau Aia village, Padang Pariaman regency.

"Like the other two villages, the Pulau Aia village was completely flattened to the ground. No survivor was found there. We only found 26 bodies there. If we continue digging the ground, diseases that came up from decomposed corpses could occur in the area," Rustam said.

The other two villages, which Rustam said to have been sunken to below the ground, were Cumanak and Lubuk Laweh in the same regency. The crisis team discovered 69 and 132 dead bodies in the two villages.

Rustam said that the whole buildings in those three villages were collapsed and buried below the ground as no single one remain intact on the ground.

Padang Pariaman regency is one of the areas in the province that was hardest-hit by the quake as it is located near the quake epicenter. The rescue teams are still working to discover and pull out victims who are still trapped under the ruble of buildings in Padang and neighboring areas.

Indonesian government officials predicted that the trapped victims could reach thousands.