INDONESIA QUAKE KILLED 24, 250 INJURED

BLANG MANCUNG, Indonesia - Rescuers battled through landslides and blocked roads Wednesday to reach survivors from an earthquake in Indonesia's Aceh province that killed at least 24 people, including several children who died when a mosque collapsed.

Almost 250 people were also injured in Aceh's remote, mountainous interior when the strong 6.1-magnitude quake struck the north of Sumatra island on Tuesday, flattening buildings and triggering landslides.

The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of just 10 kilometres (six miles), has sparked panic in the natural disaster-prone region where more than 170,000 people were killed by the quake-triggered tsunami of 2004.

In Blang Mancung village, Central Aceh district, there was widespread devastation with many homes reduced to rubble and at least six children killed when a mosque collapsed during a Quran reading session.

• Rescuers dug all night with an excavator through the rubble of the mosque looking for more children but a local disaster agency official said late Wednesday he did not believe that anyone else was buried.
• As 16 aftershocks rocked Aceh late Tuesday, around 700 people from the village and its surrounding areas took refuge in makeshift shelters, the national disaster agency said.

Source: AsiaOne...More...