Another Earthquake rocks Sumatra!

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 - 7.0 has hit Sumatra, a day after another powerful quake had disastrous effects much of the Indonesian island.

Officials now say more than 200 bodies have been found from the earlier 7.6 magnitude quake, which triggered landslides and cut power to many areas.

Hundreds of buildings, including hospitals, collapsed in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.

Rescue workers said the number of dead is expected to rise. Thousands of people are thought to be buried under rubble. (BBC )

Source : USGS

Earlier Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia's National Disaster Agency, said some 100 to 200 people had died in Padang and more than 500 houses and buildings had collapsed.

"Many people are staying outdoors and some people are staying in public facilities," he told Reuters.

Mr Kardono told the AFP news agency about 150 military personnel, as well as police and Health Ministry workers, were in the affected area, but they urgently needed heavy machinery to lift the rubble.

Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's disaster centre in Jakarta, said there were "thousands of people trapped in the rubble of buildings".

He said a city hospital was among the ruined buildings.

The quake brought down telephone lines, severely affecting communications with the affected area and making it difficult to assess the scale of the damage.

The authorities said heavy rain was hampering the rescue attempt.

Burning buildings

The first earthquake struck at 1716 local time (1016 GMT) on Wednesday, some 85km (55 miles) under the sea, north-west of Padang, the US Geological Survey said.

The second quake was on land and struck at 0852 local time on (0152 GMT) on Thursday, about 225km (95 miles) south-east of Padang at a depth of about 25km (15.5 miles).

There were no immediate reports of damage from the second quake.

MAJOR INDONESIAN QUAKES 26 Dec 2004: Asian tsunami kills 170,000 in Indonesia alone 28 March 2005: About 1,300 killed after a magnitude 8.7 quake hits the coast of Sumatra 27 May 2006: Quake hits ancient city of Yogyakarta, killing 5,000 17 July 2006: A tsunami after a 7.7 magnitude quake in West Java province kills 550 people In pictures: Sumatra earthquake Animated guide: Earthquakes

Witnesses to the first quake said residents ran out of buildings in Padang - which has a population of 900,000 - and surrounding cities.

Jane Liddon, an Australian businesswoman in Padang, told Australian radio many large buildings in the town had been severely damaged.

"The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned," she said.

"A lot of people died in there. A lot of places are burning."

But Ms Liddon said many smaller residential properties had escaped the damage.

Australia has offered to send emergency assistance to Indonesia if needed.

"They are very close friends and neighbours. They know that we are here and available to help. They just have to ask," said international Aid Minister, Bob McMullan.

Indonesian officials have said the quake was one of the biggest in Indonesia in recent years and could have been more powerful than the 2006 Yogyakarta quake which killed more then 5,000 people.

Wednesday's quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

That much more powerful earthquake struck roughly 600km north-west of Padang.

Geologists have long warned that Padang could one day be completely destroyed by an earthquake because of its location.

Western Sumatra is a mainly rural area with dense tropical forest.

It has several national parks and many of its beaches are popular with surfers.