Java Death Toll Passes 500

The death toll from the tsunami that hit Java earlier this week rose by almost 200 today to 531, with more than 270 people still missing.

There were also reports today of a new earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1, which caused buildings to sway in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

There were no immediate reports of casualties following today's quake, which officials said was centred 118 miles south-west of Jakarta.

Officials said the death toll from Monday's tsunami, which was caused by a 7.7-magnitude quake, was rising as police and army teams encountered more and more bodies as they worked in the disaster area on Java. Teams were working in the wreckage with sniffer dogs and mechanical equipment.

The rising death toll was fuelling questions about the failures of officials in Jakarta to issue a tsunami warning. Officials received data about Monday's around 20 minutes before the first wave struck Java but failed to issue a tsunami warning.

One official, science and technology minister Kusmayanto Kadiman, told the Guardian yesterday they were too busy monitoring the aftershocks to raise the alarm as the waves hit a 110-mile stretch of coastline.

Speaking today, Mr Kadiman appeared to back away from his remarks yesterday. He told el-Shinta radio that the government's meteorological agency sent text messages to at least 400 officials, and that one of his staffers appeared on national television to warn of the tsunami.

But Mr Kadiman did not say whether the actions were taken before the tsunami hit, or whether the 400 officials lived on the threatened coastline.

Meanwhile today, rumours of another killer wave sparked mass panic on Pangandaran beach, an area that was the worst hit on Monday. More than 1,000 people ran from the beach area or jumped on bikes or in cars and headed inland amid shouts of "The water is coming!"

"People suddenly started running so I joined them," said Marino, a 42-year-old man who was caught up in the exodus.

And amateur video footage emerged showing the tsunami hitting the beach on Monday. The video shows children playing in the surf and building sandcastles, followed by a wall of black water bearing down on the beach. The camera operator then runs away amid screams.

The waves, more than two metres high, reached 200 metres inland in some places, destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats were left mangled in fishing nets, furniture and other debris. Five bodies were found on beaches in the Pangandaran area alone early today, Red Cross official Mehmet Selamat said. "There are many fishermen missing," he told Reuters.

So far, four foreigners have been confirmed among the dead: a Dutch national, a Swede, a Japanese and a Belgian.

At the area's main hospital, in the town of Banjar, medics today treated a steady stream of patients, most from the Pangandaran coast, the Associated Press reported. Some slept on dirty mattresses on the floor, while others were treated in the admissions hall.

Surgeons amputated the left leg of a woman who was trapped under the rubble of her house. "I thought I was going do die, but God gave me mercy so I can carry on with my life," Tintin Rotiyani said from her hospital bed.

The area hit by Monday's tsunami was not affected by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, which killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations. More than half the deaths were in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra.

Indonesia started to install a warning system after that disaster, but it is still in its early stages. The government had been planning to extend the alert system to Java in 2007.