Indonesian tsunami zone welcomes aid shipments
Baku, October 28 (AZERTAC). Relief efforts have been stepped up in Indonesia as three aid ships reached the worst-hit parts of the island chain devastated by Monday`s tsunami, according to BBC News.
Rescue teams are now at work on North Pagai island in the remote Mentawai Islands off western Sumatra.
More than 340 people are known to have died. Hundreds are still missing.
Indonesia`s president has visited the islands, which were inundated after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered the tsunami three days ago.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a trip to Vietnam to oversee the rescue effort, flying in a helicopter loaded with food and other basic necessities to the remote and inaccessible islands.
There he met both survivors and local officials, promising the central government would help West Sumatra`s government to build temporary homes, health facilities and schools, his spokesman said.
The aid effort comes as Indonesia struggles with the devastation caused by this week`s eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java, which killed more than 30 people.
Local officials say most of the villages hit by the tsunami have been reached, with victims from the worst-hit areas being buried in mass graves.
But almost 400 remain unaccounted for, and rescuers are now working on the assumption that a large number of those missing will not be found alive, having been washed out to sea by the wave.
Other news in this section
