EIGHT LIVE VICTIMS DETECTED IN AMBACANG HOTEL RUINS

Padang, Oct 3 (ANTARA) - An evacuation team was on Saturday trying to rescue eight earthquake victims who were still alive but trapped in the ruins of Hotel Ambacang, Padang, West Sumatra.

"Eight people are believed to be still alive inside the ruins of Hotel Ambacang. We are still trying to rescue them," a member of the evacuation team, Airlangga, said here on Saturday morning (Oct 3).

The evacuation team discovered the eight trapped victims after hand claps by team members were responded to by human voices from inside the collapsed building.

"They responded to our hand claps to signal they were still alive," he said.

According to Airlangga, there was also one victim who managed to send a text message to his family outside the hotel.

"A victim who was trapped in room 338 sent a text message to his family saying that he was still alive but lying in a facedown position," said Airlangga.

He said other victims were presumed trapped in the ruins of the hotel's fifth or sixth floor.

Meanwhile, an evacuation team working at another collapsed building, the Hang Tuah Hotel, was on Saturday morning trying to extricate a live victim from the wrecked hotel.

The yet-to-be identified victim was wedged between a pillar and immovable debris inside the building.

A spokesman of the evacuation team said the team needed welding equipment and more people who knew how to use the available tools to handle the rubble.
In Cumanak, Lubuk Laweh and Pulau Koto, Nagari Tandikek, Padang Pariaman district, at least 400 people were reported to be still buried under the rubble of homes and other buildings following the magnitude-7.6 earthquake of September 30, 2009.

Nineteen of the victims, however, were found and evacuated using makeshift means on Thursday (Oct 1) and Friday (Oct 2) by a joint SAR team, whose members came from South Sumatra and West Sumatra, on Thursday and Friday.

The search for the hundreds of people buried in the rubble was carried out using wood cutters and crowbars.

The Wednesday earthquake in West Sumatra also caused landslides in Padang Pariaman district. The landslides covered the homes of 60 families in Cumanak, of 50 others in Lubuk Laweh and 17 in Pulau Koto.

"For the time being we are using only ordinary and traditional tools, because the more sophisticated heavy-duty equipment and machinery are still on their way here. The search will be continued on Saturday (Oct 3)," said Yusuf, a local resident who assisted the joint SAR team in its job.

A magnitude-7.6 quake struck West Sumatra on Wednesday afternoon (Sept 3) destroying 80 percent of the houses in Padang Pariaman district.