Canada pledges aid as Indonesian death toll reaches 3,500

Canada has pledged assistance to Indonesia's victims after a massive earthquake left more than 3,500 people dead and injured thousands more in the region's worst disaster since the tsunami struck in 2004.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck at 5:54 a.m. local time, and was felt the strongest in the town of Bantul, near the ancient Javanese city of Yogyakarta, 440 kilometres east of Jakarta.

The epicentre was located in the Indian Ocean, 37 kilometres south of Yogyakarta, 17 kilometres beneath the sea bed.

Preliminary casualty figures vary, but officials said the death toll was at least 3,500 with many more people missing or seriously injured. More than two-thirds of the deaths occurred in Bantul, a town that was devastated by the earthquake, leaving more than 200,000 people homeless and hundreds of bodies in the streets.

There are 30 Canadians in the area, but they are apparently safe. CUSO reported Saturday that all of its volunteers had been accounted for.

Thousands of terrified townspeople ran out of their houses and into open areaswhen the earth started to shake early in the morning when many were still in bed.The people fled again, this time to higher ground,when rumours of an impendingtsunamispread among the panic-struck crowds.

The townspeople soonreturned to their homes to search for missing relatives and to hurry the injured to makeshift hospitals.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rushed to the scene of the earthquake to oversee the rescue operations. He ordered the army to help evacuate victims.

Scientists warned that the earthquake might trigger an eruption at nearby Mount Merapi, the volcano that has been threatening to blow for about a month. The volcano did send out clouds of ash but appeared to be quiet later in the day.

Canada has promised aid

International aid organizations were quick to respond. Canada promised $2 million to assist victims in the region, while federal Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKayoffered his sympathy.

"On behalf of all Canadians, I wish to extend our sympathies to the families and friends of those who lost their lives and to those communities hit by this dreadful act of nature," MacKay said in a statement a few hours after the earthquake struck. "I also want to reassure Canadians that my department and the embassy of Canada in Jakarta are in contact with local authorities to determine if any Canadian citizens have been affected."

In Zurich, the International Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for $10 million US, and in the United States a Pentagon spokeswoman said the U.S. Defence Department was ready to help.

Britain said it had donatedthreemillion pounds to the United Nations and its agencies to meet the immediate needs of those hit by the quake.

30 Canadians in the earthquake zone

Canada's Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kim Girtel said Saturday the Canadian embassy in Jakarta was trying to get in touch with the 30 Canadians believed to be in the region.

Two of CUSOs volunteers were in Yogyakarta for language training when the earthquake hit.But CUSO said they are accounted for and in good health.

"After very tense moments, we are extremely relieved to be in communication with each of our volunteers and colleagues," said Russ Cullinane, CUSOs project development co-ordinator in the region. "CUSOs office, and our peers homes were left relatively undamaged. However, there is great devastation all around the area. We were very lucky."

MacKay told Canadian Press in a telephone interview Saturday: "I am relieved to say that no Canadian death or injury has been reported to date, but efforts to reach Canadians living in the area will continue."

The minister saidhe planned to speak with his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirayuda, later in the day to determine how Canada can be most effective in assisting with relief efforts.

"That conversation will allow me to assess what further aid may be required, how the international community is responding, and our most effective way to see that goods and water and food and aid is making it to the individuals who need it most," MacKay said.

The Indonesian government had not yet made a formal appeal for international assistance. A request would have to be made in order for Canada's disaster assistance response team, or DART, to be deployed to the region, as it was most recently after last fall's earthquake in Pakistan.

Girtel said officials from Foreign Affairs, National Defence and the Canadian International Development Agency will be heading to Indonesia on Sunday to provide support to the Canadian embassy in Jakarta.

Canadian aid groups are also lending support to the relief effort. The Canadian Red Cross said it's redirecting funds from its existing pool of resources to help Indonesia with immediate emergency needs. Those interested in helping victims can make donations to the Canadian Red Cross International Disaster Relief Fund.

UNICEF said they have deployed emergency staff and supplies on the ground, and the group is collecting donations by phone and online to help victims.

Dave Toycen, president and CEO of World Vision Canada, says an assessment team of between 10 to 12 people are heading to the affected region to survey the damage. A reserve of immediate emergency supplies is being distributed. The group plans to raise $1 million as a response to the earthquake.

"We're really quite confident we'll be able to do that," Toycen said. "There's good interest, strong interest. People care."

Mass graves

As night fell, many people were seen sleeping in the street as the army and relief workers struggled to help in the evacuation.

"It's pitch dark. We have to use candles and we are sitting outside now. We are too scared to sleep inside," Tjut Nariman told Reuters on the outskirts of Yogyakarta.

"The radio keeps saying there will be more quakes. We still feel the tremors."

Many roads and bridges were damaged, and in the worst-hit areas mass graves were being dug.

"Since the earthquake started very violently, there was little time for people to get out," Brook Weisman-Ross, the regional disaster co-ordinator for Plan International, told CBC News from Yogyakarta. "Many government buildings and large buildings across the city sustained significant damage to them."

"It lasted for about a minute and a half, but it felt like forever," the BBC's Orlando de Guzman told CBC News.

In several of the surrounding villages, about 90 per cent of the houses were flattened or severely damaged," said de Guzman, who lives in the region.

Many people affected

As many as 150,000 people may have been displaced by the disaster, Weisman-Ross said, adding
that there were no clear numbers yet.

"I would say that's probably a likely figure since there's a dense population here," he said.

"The number of casualties is expected to rise," the Indonesian Red Cross said on its website, since many people remain trapped or buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

A quake with a magnitude of 6 or greater has the potential to cause severe damage.