NZer jumps into sea after tsunami-hit boat burns

The MV Midas burst into flames after colliding with another boat when a tsunami tore them from their anchorages in Indonesia yesterday. Photo / Supplied

An unidentified New Zealander was forced to jump into the sea when a 3m tsunami tore two charter boats from their anchorages at a remote Indonesian surf break.

The boats collided and one vessel, the 22.5m motor cruiser MV Midas, burst into flames, forcing eight surfers from the Gold Coast and the New Zealander to leap into the water, the Herald Sun newspaper reported.

Some of the men - and the Midas's skipper Rick Hallet, from Mona Vale, north of Sydney, were swept hundreds of metres into the jungle by the tsunami.

They clung to trees until the surge subsided.

Six Sydney men on the charter boat Freedom III, a 22m powered catamaran, which collided with the MV Midas, were not injured.

The boats were anchored at the Macaronis break on Pagai Selatan Island, 800kn northwest of Jakarta.

The tsunami followed a 7.7 magnitude quake, which split the ocean floor next to the Mentawai Islands, off West Sumatra, at 9.42pm on Monday local time (early yesterday morning NZDT).

At least 113 people have died on nearby islands, with hundreds more injured and scores missing.

With few rescuers able to get to the islands to help with searches, fisherman have been left to find the dead and look for the living.

Mentawai district chief Edison Salelo Baja said corpses were strewn about because there were not enough people to dig graves.

Harmensyah, the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency in West Sumatra, said: "There are no Westerners who have died or are injured. They are all safe."

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire - a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

- NZPA