More than 200 dead reported in Indonesia quake

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia's Central Java province today, flattening buildings and killing at least 211 people.

The 6.2 magnitude quake also triggered heightened activity in the region's deadly Mount Merapi volcano, which has been spewing clouds of hot ash, gas and lava for several weeks, a scientist said.

The quake struck at 5.54am (11.54am NZt), 25 km south-west of the city of Yogyakarta, causing damage and casualties there and in at least two other nearby towns, officials said.

Five and half hours after the quake at least 211 bodies were lying in seven hospitals in the region, and more injured and dead people were still arriving, according to morgue officials.

"We are overwhelmed with bodies," said Subandi, a morgue official at Bethseda hospital in Yogyakarta, where 56 dead bodies lay.

Hundreds were also injured when the earthquake shook the area around Indonesia's ancient royal city and tourist centre Yogyakarta early today.

Yogyakarta is on Indonesia's main island of Java and near Mount Merapi, a volcano that has been on top alert for a major eruption this month.

A vulcanologist in Yogyakarta said the quake was tectonic and not caused by the volcano, but the quake's impact could increase Merapi's activity.

The quake had a magnitude of 6.2, according to the US Geological Survey and was offshore. Jakarta earthquake centre official Fauzi said it did not cause a tsunami.

Yogyakarta is about 25 km north of the Indian Ocean coast and 440 km east of Jakarta.

"Until 10.30am 56 people were recorded killed at Bethesda (hospital)" in Yogyakarta, Subandi, an official at the hospital's morgue, told Reuters by telephone.

Most of the dead had head injuries and broken bones from collapsing buildings.

Officials at three other hospitals in and around Yogyakarta had earlier given figures for the dead totalling 51.

Witnesses said hundreds of houses had collapsed in the quake. Office and government buildings were also in ruins.

Hospital patients had been moved outside due to fears of aftershocks.

Jakarta earthquake centre official Fauzi put the quake's strength at 5.8 and said the epicentre was in the sea about 50 km south of Yogyakarta at a depth of 33 km.

There was widespread panic in Bantul, where at least 10 people were killed and hundreds hurt, and a desperate need for more doctors and nurses to treat the injured, said Kardi, the information officer for the hospital there.

A Reuters witness in Yogyakarta said many people there had fled their homes while thousands of others from areas near the city were trying to get into it to take refuge, many fearing a tsunami.

One Yogyakarta resident, Nani Kasidjo, said: "I was having a morning walk and suddenly I felt dizzy and then people ran out of their houses screaming 'Earthquake!"'.

Yogyakarta's airport was closed with its runway damaged, Hatta Rajasa, transportation minister, told Elshinta news radio.

Roads leading to the coast were cracked and power was off in some areas, witnesses said. Telephone communication was erratic.

Yogyakarta's royal palaces and the nearby Borobudur temple complex are prime attractions for domestic and foreign tourists, and many foreigners study the Indonesian language at schools in the city which offer intensive courses.

Indonesia sits on the Asia-Pacific's "Ring of Fire" marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity.

- REUTERS