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Grim scenes repeated all over devastated Padang

Two women sit amongst the rubble of a building in the quake-flattened city of Padang, Indonesia, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Her reddened eyes darting back and forth across the wreckage, Andriani waited in front of the crumbled school where her teenage daughter was taking a class when disaster struck.

The 49-year-old mother stood crying as rescuers dug with their hands through rubble turned to mush by heavy rain in the devastated city of Padang, “Ground Zero” on the quake-hit Indonesian island of Sumatra.

“I’ve been waiting here since yesterday. I haven’t been home yet and keep praying to God my daughter is alive,” she said.

The building was one of scores toppled by a 7.6-magnitude quake that struck on Wednesday in a disaster officials said is likely to have left thousands dead.

After a night of raging fires triggered by the major quake, thousands packed the roads in cars and motorbikes to escape the city, jamming roads as blaring ambulances tried to negotiate a way through the slow-moving traffic.

Andriani’s 14-year-old daughter was one of dozens of children feared killed during classes at the evening school, where the third floor had collapsed, smashing the two stories of classrooms below.

Shouts from inside the wreckage had helped overworked rescuers pull out nine to safety, but the bodies of eight children had also been retrieved and workers prepared rows of body bags in orange, green and yellow.

The grim scene was repeated across Padang, a city of nearly 1 million people, and the surrounding area as buildings from hospitals to hotels and homes buckled under the shaking.

Officials complained of a shortage of heavy equipment to clear away debris, but medicine, food and experts were speeding to the area to help with the rescue effort.

At the five-story Mariani Hotel, owner Arif Husein described responding to the screams of a guest trapped under a table in the wreckage of the lobby.

“I asked him not to move too much so he could conserve his energy. At eight this morning, an excavator started digging at the site,” Husein said.

Broken air-conditioning units, bedsheets, and wooden planks from smashed bed heads could be seen protruding from the debris. Not far from the city center, a concrete slab that had served as a roof sat on top of four stories that had disintegrated, leaving a car showroom on the ground floor pulverized debris. Three flattened cars sat outside.

A security guard by the showroom said most of the 15 employees had managed to evacuate the building, but two were caught inside.

Their bodies were pulled out of the rubble overnight.

Employee Herli, 24, was sleeping outside the car showroom where he had worked until Wednesday.

“I’m afraid two employees are still trapped inside,” he said.

Although Herli was grateful his entire family was still alive, he wondered where his income would now come from.

“I don’t know what will happen next, now that my office is like this,” he said.
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