At least 100 likely dead in Indonesia quake

INDONESIA: At least 100 people were likely killed by a major 7.0-magnitude quake that rocked Indonesia's main island of Java last week, an official said Monday. Authorities had confirmed 74 were killed in the quake, which struck off the south coast of Java on Wednesday, disaster management agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono told AFP.

Another 34 people were also believed buried and likely dead under tonnes of boulders and earth by an earthquake-triggered landslide in the West Java village of Cikangkareng 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the capital Jakarta, Kardono said. "The bodies will be crushed if we use heavy machinery like excavators," he said, adding bulldozers were being used to help to clear away rubble.

"We have no other way but to search for the bodies manually, clearing away big rocks by hand and using the help of sniffer dogs to detect them, but it takes too much time."

Jakarta, Monday, AFP