Indonesian government to send relief aids for Aceh earthquake victims

Indonesian Social Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said on Wednesday that relief aid and volunteers will be immediately sent to the westernmost province of Aceh which was just hit by a devastating earthquake earlier in the day.

"We want to assure that our mobile food processor can access the location in Pidie Jaya. We would maximize our assistance and relief distribution to the affected area despite problems due to the cracked roads heading there," the minister said in a statement.

She said about 33,000 volunteers will also be deployed to Pidie Jaya.

First batch of materials to arrive will be foods, tents and clothes and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency will cooperate with the Social Ministry and local authorities in the rescue work, the minister said.

An earthquake of 6.4 magnitude struck Pidie Jaya at 5:03 a.m. Wednesday local time, followed by aftershocks in several minutes.

An official at Aceh disaster mitigation agency said that the earthquake has killed at least 40 people and injured 190 others with tens of others still trapped under piles of debris of collapsed buildings.

Epicenter of the earthquake was identified in 10 kilometers north of Aceh northern city of Reuleut, at a depth of 17 kilometers. No tsunami warning has been issued by Indonesian climatology and geophysics agency.

Officials overseeing the affected district of Pidie Jaya, located 18 kilometers southwest from the epicenter, said that at least 40 buildings collapsed due to the earthquake.

Activities to evacuate victims are underway at present. Excavators were deployed to remove debris from collapsed buildings.

Video footage taken by amateurs showed eerie situation on the scene. A two-story mosque collapsed and flattened to the ground. Another footage showed a collapsed compound of shops which was also used as houses where many are believed to be still trapped under piles of debris.

A collapsed house was seen fall onto a car whose lamps were still on and its alarms continue to emit warning sounds.

Reports said that residents in the district frantically sought higher ground to save their families' lives.

Aceh province's capital of Banda Aceh saw a deadly earthquake in Dec. 2004 that was followed by tsunami, killing over 160,000 people.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. Endit