Aftershocks as relief effort builds in Indonesia

GUNUNGSITOLI, Indonesia - Strong aftershocks rattled earthquake-devastated Nias island on Thursday as international aid flowed in and rescuers pulled survivors out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.

At least three tremors rocked the area off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, one of them measured at 6.3 on the Richter scale by the Hong Kong observatory, causing alarm as rescue efforts and body recovery operations entered a third day.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was due to arrive on the island for an overnight stay later in the morning, a palace spokesman said.

"Aid has come, there has been some progress," Binahati Baeha, mayor of the island's main town, Gunungsitoli, told Reuters.

He said hundreds of Indonesian soldiers on the island were engaged in rescue and body recovery work.

French firefighters pulled a woman from the rubble of her home alive in the early morning, more than 48 hours after the massive 8.7 magnitude quake struck on Monday night.

A contingent of Australian medics had also arrived on the island. Three Singaporean Chinook helicopters ferried the worst injured off the island to the Sumatran mainland.

As many as 2,000 people are feared to have died and many more are believed trapped under the rubble, according to Indonesian officials. A UN statement said some 500 were confirmed killed.

"That number is expected to rise," said Masood Hyder, the UN deputy humanitarian coordinator in Banda Aceh on the Sumatra mainland, late on Wednesday.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Thursday revised down the number of Australians missing following the earthquake to four, from 15.

He said an Australian medical team had reported treating terrible injuries.

"The reports that I have had in now overnight are, I must admit, pretty bad," he told Australian radio. "It has been a very significant humanitarian crisis."

Crucial aid began flowing into Nias on Wednesday as international agencies and the United Nations diverted efforts from Aceh province on Sumatra, which was hardest hit by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami three months ago that left more than 220,000 Indonesians dead or missing.

The US Navy hospital ship Mercy and supply ship Niagara Falls, which carries three helicopters, were expected to arrive off Nias in about six days. Japanese medics are also due soon.

Large parts of Nias, famed as a surfing paradise, have been damaged and much of Gunungsitoli has been flattened. Several hundred people are reported to have died on the isolated Banyak island group just north of Nias.

A Reuters reporter on a ferry approaching Nias laden with troops, foreign volunteers, heavy lifting equipment, ambulances and other vehicles said several Indonesian navy ships were anchored off Gunungsitoli.

The imperative, one doctor said, was to tend to the injured as soon as possible.

"People with broken bones need to have them set or there will be a lot of complications and infection," said Bill Sears, 65, a paediatrician and professor from California.

"We want to get there before that happens," he said.

- REUTERS