PADANG, Indonesia: Indonesia called off the search for survivors in the quake-hit city of Padang on Monday as officials sought to contain the risk of disease caused by thousands of trapped bodies.
Local officials and foreign specialists who rushed to Indonesia’s Sumatra island after Wednesday’s devastating 7.6-magnitude earthquake said the aid effort had switched to relief and rebuilding.
The United Nations has said at least 1,100 people were killed in the disaster, but estimates of the final toll range up to 5,000. The official toll stood at 650 dead and 672 missing, according to the Health Ministry.
“The effort to find survivors in Padang was stopped last night but they are still going on outside Padang,” Indonesian disaster management agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono told AFP. Swiss Rescue spokeswoman Michele Mercier said the group’s 115-strong team was packing up and preparing to go home.
“Nobody from the teams we know found a survivor, unfortunately. We recovered six bodies,” she said.
Foreign aid and emergency teams continued to pour into Padang, bringing tons of medical supplies, drinking water and food for the tens of thousands of people made homeless by the quake.
Rubble and ruins in the city of one million people on Sumatra’s west coast was being scoured for hundreds of bodies believed to be interred in the wreckage.
Two heavy excavators were trying to reach scores of bodies believed buried under the wreckage of the landmark Ambacang Hotel, which resembled a stack of pancakes.
