A powerful earthquake flattened buildings in central Indonesia early Saturday, killing nearly 2,000 people and injuring thousands more in the country's worst disaster since the Asian tsunami, officials said. The magnitude 6.2 quake struck near the ancient city of Yogyakarta around dawn as many people slept, causing death and damage in many nearby towns.

Roads and bridges were destroyed, hindering efforts to get the wounded to hospitals. Some phone lines also were cut.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the army to help evacuate victims, as panicked residents ran into the smoldering streets, many clutching young children. He said he would head to the disaster zone in Central Java province later Saturday.

Nine hours after the quake struck, the number of dead stood at 1,987, said Sopar Djaya, an official in the Social Affairs Ministry's task force office, with two thirds of the fatalities in the devastated district of Bantul.

The numbers just keep rising," said Arifin Muhadi of the Indonesian Red Cross, adding that nearly 2,900 people were hurt in the disaster — the worst to hit the sprawling archipelago since the 2004 tsunami.

Muhadi's death toll stood at around 1,400, but he said his agency had not been able to contact authorities in some of the hard hit areas.

ooh thanks for the news.. :cry:

me country :bigcry:

Sad news, good architecture would save many, many lives...

but good architecture can help now.. :cry: everything is broken here, airport, houses, everything.. total chaos.. people screaming and crying everywhere.. searching for their families.. 2,200 found dead.. ooh god :bigcry:

:( Very sad news! I saw it this morning on TV. It's weird but it reminds me of that Tsunami which also hit Indonesia. :( Hope they'll find a lot of survivors..

poor country isnt it. terrorist, earthquake, tsunami. :(

yeah i hope so.. all we need now is medicine and hospitals..

wasnt enough here..

There's probably gonna be thousands more dead.

Sad news.

indeed, terrible...i think we are at 3000 deaths now, sad.

 

RIP

I heard there could be like 5000 deaths. :\ So sad... in dangerous places like those there should be many systems monitoring sysmic activity and prevent people of disasters like this.

Do you know if your family and friends are all okay, watermelonc1? So heartbreaking.. the tsunami was like a year and half ago and now this, seems like Indonesia can't get a break. :sad: And I guess it'll be even more destruction if this earthquake triggers Mount Merapi to errupt? .. eugh, horribly sad.

i dont know at all.. i have no close friends there, i live in jakarta.. but still it's kind of depressing hearing the news 24/7 now.

I'm glad you don't have any close friends in that area. Yeah it's all so depressing, it's all over the news here as well... trying not to watch too much of it. Hoping that relief efforts at least begin right away, I'd certainly donate or try to help any way I can. :sad:

thank you so much victaniac..

Good to know you and your relatives are ok.

Btw, still pretty sad news for the country. :(

The official number is about to reach 4000!

that's terrible

5100 now:(

It's horrible.

 

I've been wanting to volunteer to go there to help, but I'm so busy these days! AGH! How frustrating...

 

Hope everyone there stays strong.

yeah, so terrible, so sad:cry: ...maybe can we consider that we are so little compared to the power of the earth...:thinking: