Indonesian rescue workers are struggling to reach hundreds of people believed to be missing after a tsunami smashed into a remote island chain in the west of the country, killing at least 300 people.
Disaster management officials said nearly 400 people remained missing on Thursday, three days after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck near the Mentawai Islands, in west Sumatra, causing three-metre high waves.
The waves washed away at least 10 villages and flattened houses, as it surged as far as 600 metres inland on South Pagai island, officials said.
Medical personnel were on their way to the worst-hit areas in helicopters but rescue efforts had been hampered by disruption to communications on the islands, which are about half a day's boat ride away from the port of Padang on Sumatra. Rough seas and bad weather also hampered relief operations.
"We need to find the missing people as soon as possible," Harmensyah, the West Sumatra disaster management head, said.
"Some of them might have run away to the mountains, but many would have been swept away."
Sumber: Al-Jazeera.Net
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