October 7, 1995
Web posted at: 11:55 p.m. EDT (0355 GMT)
PADANG, Indonesia (CNN) -- Authorities fear the death toll will increase from a massive earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Saturday, killing between 70 and 100 people.
The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.0, struck the remote and mountainous region early Saturday. Most of the casualties appeared to have occurred in the villages of Lempur and Tanjung Rawang, which are wedged between some of the tallest mountains in western Indonesia.
The area is called the Jambi province, a group of islands located on the volatile earthquake belt known as the "Ring of Fire."
Residents reported further shocks up to eight hours later. Poor communications were hindering efforts to gauge the extent of the damage.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Office said the quake was centered 10 miles west of Sungai Penuh, with a population of more than 40,000, and the capital of Kerinci, near Sumatra's west coast. There are 150,000 people living in the district.
A resident of Sungai Penuh quoted the local head of the police as saying that 63 bodies had been found, many of them from nearby villages. Seventeen were from Semurup, 7 miles north of Sungai Penuh.
Reports from the remote region indicated that the local hospitals were unable to cope with the injured. Local military personnel rushed to the disaster areas to help with the rescue.
The town lies at the center of a fertile valley where paddy fields, tea, clove and coffee plantations are surrounded by heavily forested mountains. One of them, Mount Kerinci, is west Indonesia's highest peak at 12,467 feet.
A government geologist said that the quake was on the 400-mile Sumatra fault, which runs the length of the island.
In February 1994, more than 215 people were killed in an earthquake at Liwa, which is located on the fault in western Lampung on Sumatra's southern tip.
The Jambi quake is the largest in Indonesia this year.
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