Indonesia quake survivors build makeshift shelters

BANTUL, Indonesia, May 28 (Reuters) Using fabric, plastic and anything that could be pulled from the rubble of the deadly Indonesian earthquake, survivors constructed makeshift shelters today as they waited for international aid to arrive.

Aid agencies say between 100,000 and 200,000 people have been left homeless by yesterday's 6.3 magnitude quake, which particularly devastated the Bantul area near the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, about 440km (270 miles) east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

UNICEF spokesman John Budd said 40 per cent of the homeless were under 18.

The death toll from the quake, centred just offshore, stands at more than 3,700, and up to 20,000 people have been injured.

''We desperately need tents, the kind of aid coming here has been limited so far. We have only received instant noodles,'' Yudi Rahardjo told Reuters outside his ruined house in the farming village of Karangtalun where his sister was still trapped.

Rahardjo said he tried to sleep on a badminton field but had been kept awake by overnight rain.

Another Karangtalun local, Jumilah, whose father died in the quake, was seen picking up the roof tiles of her collapsed home.

''I am just picking up every single thing,'' she said as she piled the tiles in her arms. ''All of our basic food is now squashed, including the rice, so we need help.'' A truck carrying clean water arrived in the village but most residents said what they needed most was food and tents.

''The most important thing is to give tents, staying in the open air area may be fine for one day but after that it's not OK,'' said Captain Mulyadi head of military in the district in Imogiri.

But UNICEF's Budd said that while aid was beginning to get through to Bantul, which accounted for more than 2,000 of the deaths reported so far and where most buildings were flattened, treating the injured was still the priority.

''Nobody really knows for sure (how many are injured) simply because a lot of people were actually evacuated out of the area in order to be treated and a lot of people who are injured have been turned away,'' Budd said.

Hundreds of injured crammed one of Yogyakarta's main hospitals, where tents were being used to cope with the influx.

''The patients are (outside) because they are afraid to stay inside,'' one unnamed hospital official said.

''When the first shock hit us, it was really bad, and when we felt a second tremor, everyone panicked and tried to run out of the building, so it is better to treat them outside.'' Red Cross spokeswoman Teresita Uspadin said the agency had started bringing in and distributing 1,000 tents in Bantul, but said water and food were also desperately needed.

''There are some areas where there is no safe drinking water,'' Uspadin said.

Aid agencies said the spread of disease is a key concern in the first days after such a disaster, but it was not yet posing a problem.

''The positive news is that Yogyakarta is getting back to normal itself, which means you can actually base the emergency out of there, you're not dealing with a sort of ground zero situation as you were in Aceh,'' UNICEF's Budd said.

REUTERS SY PM1700