**At least 464 people are now known to have been died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the government says.**Rescuers struggled in heavy rain on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The death toll is expected to rise.
The 7.6 magnitude quake struck close to Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
The earthquake brought down hundreds of buildings, including hospitals.
It cut power lines and triggered landslides.
“Our prediction is that thousands have died,” said Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry’s disaster centre in Jakarta.
A second quake of 6.8 struck close to Padang at 0852 local time (0152 GMT) on Thursday but there are no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Heavy machinery
The first earthquake struck at 1716 local time (1016 GMT) on Wednesday, some 85km (55 miles) under the sea, north-west of Padang, the US Geological Survey said.
In pictures: Sumatra earthquake
A doctor working in Padang told the BBC he thought that thousands of people had been crushed or trapped.
One mother in Padang, Andriana, told AFP news agency she had been at her 14-year-old daughter’s collapsed school since the first quake occurred.
“I haven’t been home yet and keep praying to God my daughter is alive.”
Another resident of Padang, Siti, told Reuters news agency: “We need aid as soon as possible. We need food and medicine. Our houses have collapsed.”
Earlier Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman for Indonesia’s National Disaster Agency, said more than 500 houses and buildings had collapsed.
“Many people are staying outdoors and some people are staying in public facilities,” he told Reuters.
Mr Kardono said about 150 military personnel, as well as police and health ministry workers, were in the affected area, but they urgently needed heavy machinery to lift the rubble.
The quake brought down telephone lines, severely affecting communications with the region and making it difficult to assess the scale of the damage.
Speaking on Wednesday, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a coordinated relief effort was underway.
He said military planes were flying medical equipment and personnel to the affected region.
Burning buildings
Witnesses to the first quake said residents ran out of buildings in Padang - which has a population of 900,000 - and surrounding cities.
MAJOR INDONESIAN QUAKES
- 26 Dec 2004: Asian tsunami kills 170,000 in Indonesia alone
- 28 March 2005: About 1,300 killed after a magnitude 8.7 quake hits the coast of Sumatra
- 27 May 2006: Quake hits ancient city of Yogyakarta, killing 5,000
- 17 July 2006: A tsunami after a 7.7 magnitude quake in West Java province kills 550 people
Jane Liddon, an Australian businesswoman in Padang, told Australian radio many large buildings in the town had been severely damaged.
“The concrete buildings are all down, the hospitals, the main markets, down and burned,” she said.
“A lot of people died in there. A lot of places are burning.”
But Ms Liddon said many smaller residential properties had escaped the damage.
Australia has offered to send emergency assistance to Indonesia if needed.
“They are very close friends and neighbours. They know that we are here and available to help. They just have to ask,” said Aid Minister Bob McMullan.
Indonesian officials have said the quake was one of the biggest in Indonesia in recent years and could have been more powerful than the 2006 Yogyakarta quake that killed more then 5,000 people.
Wednesday’s quake was along the same fault line that spawned the 2004 Asian tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
That much more powerful earthquake struck roughly 600km north-west of Padang.
Geologists have long warned that Padang could one day be completely destroyed by an earthquake because of its location.
Western Sumatra is a mainly rural area with dense tropical forest.
It has several national parks and many of its beaches are popular with surfers.
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