Rescuers and aid workers were fanning out today into the hills of Indonesia's Sumatra island, where hundreds of people were buried in landslides triggered by an earthquake that may have killed 3,000.
In the shattered city of Padang, which bore the brunt Wednesday's 7.6 magnitude quake, unidentified victims pulled from the rubble were due to be laid to rest. Relief workers said there was little hope of finding anyone else alive in the ruins.
"The search and rescue will end in a couple of days," said Sjaak Seen, deputy team leader, United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination. "Normally, if you are under the rubble more than 72 hours you have only a minor chance of survival."
While aid and international rescue teams have poured into Padang, a port city of 900,000, help has been slow to reach remoter inland areas, with landslides cutting many roads.
When rescuers arrived they found entire villages obliterated by landslides and homeless survivors desperate for food, water and shelter.
Health officials said five villages had been buried in torrents of mud and rock torn out of the lush green hills by the force of the quake.
"In the villages in Pariaman, we estimate about 600 people died," said Rustam Pakaya, head of the Health Ministry's crisis centre. Pariaman, closer to the epicentre, is one of the worst-affected areas.
"In one of the villages, there's a 20-metre-high minaret, it was completely buried, there's nothing left, so I presume the whole village is buried by a 30-metre deep landslide."
Today, people were still digging at the landslide sites with wooden hoes, but the chances of finding anyone alive beneath the wet, compacted red earth appeared hopeless.
For the survivors, aid was still urgently needed.
Indonesia's health minister, Siti Fadillah Supari, said the government estimated the death toll could reach 3,000, adding that disease was becoming a concern, especially in Padang city, where a pervading stench of decomposing bodies hangs over the ruined buildings.
"We are trying to recover people from the debris, dead or alive. We are trying to help survivors to stay alive. We are now focusing on minimising post-quake deaths," she said.
Workers were due to begin spraying the wreckage with disinfectant, while at a public cemetery in Padang a pit had been dug where 11 unidentified bodies retrieved from the ruined Ambacang Hotel were due to be buried.
Indonesia's disaster agency said 20,000 buildings had been damaged in the quake, with most government offices destroyed.
Reuters