More than 2,000 people may have been killed in quake: Kalla

KUALA LUMPUR - Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced on Tuesday that as many as 2,000 people may have been killed in the strong earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Nias over night. "Maybe there are one to two thousand people who have died according to the early reports from there," Kalla said in a statement carried out by the "JakartaPost Online" picked here today.
Kalla added that a more precise evaluation would be likely in the coming hours after a further report by the district chief and police.
Officials on the Indonesian island of Nias off the west coast of Sumatra ealier put the death toll at 300 following the destruction of many buildings.
A District official was quoted as saying that at least 80 percent of all multi- storey buildings in the main city of Gunung Sitoli had been destroyed, trapping thousands of people under the rubble. The under-sea quake measuring up to 8.7 on the Richter Scale came just three months after an even bigger temblor in the same region sent giant waves crashing into 11 nations, killing over 270,000 people.

KUNA