Indonesia quake toll passes 2,700 -official

Jakarta, May 27: An earthquake that shook the area around the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta today killed more than 2,700, a government official said.

''The total for now is 2,711 people killed. The number keeps climbing by the hour because evacuation is still in process,'' Desmawati, an official at the Social Affairs Ministry's disaster task force in Jakarta, told Reuters by telephone.

She added that 1,700 people had suffered serious injuries while 872 were slightly hurt.

Yogyakarta is in the heartland of Indonesia's main island of Java and stands near Mount Merapi, a volcano that has been on top alert for a major eruption this month.

A vulcanologist in Yogyakarta said the quake was not caused by the volcano, but Merapi's activity increased after the shock.

''After the earthquake there were more clouds coming out of the crater,'' Subandrio, Merapi section head at the Centre for Vulcanological Research and Technology Department, told Reuters.

Krisdan, a resident living on the slopes of the volcano, said that when the quake hit, ''I was cleaning house. All of a sudden there was a big jolt and sounds of thunder. We ran outside.'' Yogyakarta's royal palaces and the nearby Borobudur temple complex are prime attractions for domestic and foreign tourists, while many foreigners study the Indonesian language at schools in the city which offer intensive courses.

BOROBUDUR INTACT

One staff member at a hotel opposite Borobudur told Reuters the ancient Buddhist complex was totally intact with no signs of damage, although several structures nearby collapsed.

Another tourist site, the Prambanan Hindu temple complex near Jakarta, suffered some damage to its smaller structures but the main building was intact, a Reuters witness said.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck just before 6 a.m.

0430 hrs IST with a magnitude of 6.2, according to the US Geological Survey -- was offshore. Jakarta earthquake centre official Fauzi said there was no tsunami.

REUTERS