JAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) — Search resumed in Indonesia’s quake zone for the third day on Friday (December 9) after more than 100 people were killed and thousands left homeless.
The quake toppled hundreds of buildings in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, which has declared a two-week state of emergency.
Rescuers in Aceh’s Pidie Jaya regency focused their search on a market complex, which suffered more damage than other parts of the town of 140,000.
The quake flattened most of the Pasar Meureudu market building, which housed dozens of shops, and rescue teams used excavators and their bare hands to pull out 23 bodies.
Experts also blamed poor construction.
The quake was the biggest disaster to hit the province since a December 26, 2004, quake and tsunami, which killed more than 120,000 people in Aceh. In all, the 2004 tsunami killed 226,000 people along Indian Ocean shorelines.
