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340 perish in Java quake, tsunami
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSJAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from an earthquake and resulting tsunami that smashed into fishing villages and resorts on Indonesia's Java island has reached 340 with more than 200 people missing, officials say. More than 54,000 people have been displaced, they added. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed. "We are mobilizing all our national and provincial resources to the area to handle the injured," said Dino Djalal, a spokesman for Indonesia's president. Most of the deaths are believed to have been caused by the tsunami. Monday's quake generated waves more than 3 meters high (10 feet) high. Officials said the remaining victims likely died in the initial quake, as opposed to the aftershocks, or during the crowded rush for higher ground as the ocean waves approached, officials said. The International Tsunami Information Center issued a tsunami watch after 7.7-magnitude earthquake rumbled in the Indian Ocean 350 kilometers (220 miles) south of Jakarta. The early warning system that Indonesian, German and U.N. scientists began developing after the devastating December 2004 tsunami in Indonesia has not been completed, but deep ocean sensors are in place off the coast of Sumatra, and data from these will be studied, officials said. The hardest hit areas appeared to be Indonesia's Pangandaran Beach, where 38 bodies were recovered, officials said, and Ciamis. Indonesian radio interviewed a witness named Teti who said the giant waves -- as high as trees -- damaged homes and other buildings, and she reported seeing at least three dead bodies. A hotel was also washed away, Teti said, and everyone ran for higher ground. Parliament member Rudi Supriatna Bahro in Ciamis, West Java, appeared on Metro TV saying that while the larger hotels around the beach remained standing, many of the smaller buildings were destroyed, as were dozens of homes. After Indian officials found out about the threat, police were seen ordering people to leave east coast beaches. In May, an earthquake in the Indonesian region of Yogyakarta killed more than 6,000 people and displaced more than 200,000, according to U.N. data. A massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004 killed more than 200,000 people in 12 countries. CNN's Kathy Quiano contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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