In Indonesia in 24 hours the combined death toll from the twin tsunami and earthquake disasters which struck.The local rescuers discovered 282 bodies in the remote Mentawai islands, which were inundated with a 3 metres wave when the Pacific “ring of fire” fault line ruptured on Monday night causing a 7.5 magnitude earthquake.An aid agency, estimated more than 500 people remain unaccounted for and 7,000 households have been affected.
Rescuers scouring Mount Merapi, which erupted on Tuesday, said they had so far discovered 30 bodies, including an 83-year-old man called Maridjan who watched over the volcano’s spirits.Experts warned that today’s relative calm could be a lull in the volcanic activity, the dome could still collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with the disasters. “I want to make sure the emergency response has been running well,” he told reporters in Hanoi. “I want to see the condition of the victims.”
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