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A powerful second tremor has hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra as rescue workers deal with an earlier earthquake that killed at least 450 and left thousands more missing feared dead.
The 6.9 magnitude quake struck in the early hours, about 180 miles from the epicentre of the more powerful tremor out at sea on Tuesday.
Both quakes followed an even bigger under-sea tremor in the South Pacific which triggered a huge tsunami that killed scores in the Samoan and Tonga islands including, it is feared, the toddler son of a British couple.
People search victims from a collapse building in Padang, West Sumatra Photo: AFP/GETTY
Indonesian soldiers try to comunicate with survivors of a collapsed hotel Photo: AFP/GETTY
Earthquake survivors receive medical treatment at a hospital in Padang Photo: AP
Hundreds of buildings in the Sumatran city of Padang collapsed after the area's first 7.6 magnitude movement, including two hospitals, a shopping mall and mosques. Several landslides were also reported nearer the coast.
In heavy rain overnight, Padang residents fought fires with buckets of water and used their bare hands to search for survivors, pulling at the wreckage and tossing it away piece by piece.
Health minister Siti Fadilah Supari confirmed that two hospitals and a shopping mall collapsed in the city.
He said: "This is a high-scale disaster, more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006 when more than 3,000 people died," referring to a major city on the main Indonesian island of Java.
British aid is being mobilised to areas of the country affected.
Stocks of emergency shelters, hygiene kits and clothing are ready to be distributed by aid teams funded by British charity Oxfam once workers can get through to the worst affected places.
The British Red Cross has launched a fund-raising appeal to help those caught up in both the earthquake and the tsunami.
Padang lies on the same fault line as Indonesia's Aceh province, which was devastated in the 2004 tsunami with 130,000 dead.
It runs the along the west coast of Sumatra and is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates, which have been pushing against each other for millions of years, causing huge stress to build up.
There were also fears the tremors could trigger volcanic eruptions near Padang, which lies near the colliding Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The Foreign Office has issued advice urging against "all but essential travel" to the area. said: "There will be aftershocks but it's difficult to predict whether there will be a bigger quake.
"There are three big volcanoes in West Sumatra – Merapi, Talang and Tandikat. We fear that this quake might cause volcanic eruptions there."
World Vision's Indonesian emergency head Jimmy Nadapdap said the charity would attempt to send out a disaster survey team to the affected area today.
"It is critical that we get people into the quake zone as soon as possible to find out what has happened," he said. "If buildings have collapsed then people are likely to be in urgent need of food, water and especially shelter. The injured will also need medical assistance."
Padang, the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world's most active fault lines along the "Ring of Fire" where the Into-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular earth tremors.
A 9.15 magnitude quake, with its epicentre roughly 600km (373 miles) northwest of Padang, caused the 2004 tsunami which killed 232,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.
Second earthquake hits Indonesian island where thousands feared dead - Telegraph
The 6.9 magnitude quake struck in the early hours, about 180 miles from the epicentre of the more powerful tremor out at sea on Tuesday.
Both quakes followed an even bigger under-sea tremor in the South Pacific which triggered a huge tsunami that killed scores in the Samoan and Tonga islands including, it is feared, the toddler son of a British couple.
People search victims from a collapse building in Padang, West Sumatra Photo: AFP/GETTY
Indonesian soldiers try to comunicate with survivors of a collapsed hotel Photo: AFP/GETTY
Earthquake survivors receive medical treatment at a hospital in Padang Photo: AP
Hundreds of buildings in the Sumatran city of Padang collapsed after the area's first 7.6 magnitude movement, including two hospitals, a shopping mall and mosques. Several landslides were also reported nearer the coast.
In heavy rain overnight, Padang residents fought fires with buckets of water and used their bare hands to search for survivors, pulling at the wreckage and tossing it away piece by piece.
Health minister Siti Fadilah Supari confirmed that two hospitals and a shopping mall collapsed in the city.
He said: "This is a high-scale disaster, more powerful than the earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006 when more than 3,000 people died," referring to a major city on the main Indonesian island of Java.
British aid is being mobilised to areas of the country affected.
Stocks of emergency shelters, hygiene kits and clothing are ready to be distributed by aid teams funded by British charity Oxfam once workers can get through to the worst affected places.
The British Red Cross has launched a fund-raising appeal to help those caught up in both the earthquake and the tsunami.
Padang lies on the same fault line as Indonesia's Aceh province, which was devastated in the 2004 tsunami with 130,000 dead.
It runs the along the west coast of Sumatra and is the meeting point of the Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates, which have been pushing against each other for millions of years, causing huge stress to build up.
There were also fears the tremors could trigger volcanic eruptions near Padang, which lies near the colliding Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The Foreign Office has issued advice urging against "all but essential travel" to the area. said: "There will be aftershocks but it's difficult to predict whether there will be a bigger quake.
"There are three big volcanoes in West Sumatra – Merapi, Talang and Tandikat. We fear that this quake might cause volcanic eruptions there."
World Vision's Indonesian emergency head Jimmy Nadapdap said the charity would attempt to send out a disaster survey team to the affected area today.
"It is critical that we get people into the quake zone as soon as possible to find out what has happened," he said. "If buildings have collapsed then people are likely to be in urgent need of food, water and especially shelter. The injured will also need medical assistance."
Padang, the capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, sits on one of the world's most active fault lines along the "Ring of Fire" where the Into-Australia plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular earth tremors.
A 9.15 magnitude quake, with its epicentre roughly 600km (373 miles) northwest of Padang, caused the 2004 tsunami which killed 232,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and other countries across the Indian Ocean.
Second earthquake hits Indonesian island where thousands feared dead - Telegraph
