Quake survivors afraid to return

Many survivors chose, or were forced, to sleep outside

Thousands of Indonesians have spent the night in the open after a powerful earthquake which destroyed many homes and left at least 52 people dead.

Many are afraid to return to their homes, while others have no home left.

A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono revised the death toll down from 70, as search teams continued to sift through the rubble.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang in the west of Sumatra island on Tuesday morning.

The quake and a powerful aftershock had caused panic among residents, bringing many rushing out of their homes and offices.

"I ran out of the house, but I was hit by a collapsing building," said Misbadi, 50, who broke his arm and was one of thousands of people who headed to hospitals in Padang.

Treatment areas were set up outside amid fears of aftershocks.

It was like the being in a ship where you were swayed around when there were big waves Solok resident Eyewitness accounts

"Women were crying out in terror. We all just fled as quickly as we could," said Alpion, who ran with many others to higher ground, fearing a tsunami.

None came, as the quake struck land rather than under water.

Many said they were too frightened to return to their homes.

In remoter parts, efforts to provide assistance were complicated by electricity cuts and damage to transport links.

Rescue workers said hundreds of buildings had been brought down, although the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta says many of these are likely to be small, wooden houses.

Communications cut

The epicentre of the quake was about 50km (30 miles) north-east of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra.

RECENT INDONESIAN QUAKES 6 March 2007: Magnitude 6.3 quake hits Sumatra, at least 70 dead 18 December 2006: Mag 5.7 quake hits Sumatra, seven dead 17 July 2006: Tsunami from Mag 7.7 quake off Java kills 500 27 May 2006: Mag 6.2 quake near Yogyakarta kills 5,000 26 December 2004: Tsunami from Mag 9.1 quake kills 130,000 in Sumatra

Officials said 18 people had been killed in the town of Solok, while 16 were killed in Tanah Datar.

The mayor of Solok, Samsurahim, said he could not say how many people were still trapped in the rubble.

It may be some time before the final number of dead and injured and the full extent of the damage are known.

Christelle Chapoy, from the aid charity Oxfam's earthquake response team, told the BBC her organisation was ready to assist.

"We have a standby emergency response team based in Yogyakarta [on Java], and they're collecting information from our local partners at this stage," she said from Banda Aceh in northern Sumatra.

The Dutch government was one of the first to pledge help, earmarking 1.5m euros (£1m), while a "saddened" UN chief Ban Ki-moon said his organisation was ready to step in with assistance.

Ring of fire

The quake was also felt hundreds of kilometres away in parts of Malaysia, and several tall buildings in Singapore's business district swayed slightly.

Indonesia sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, and experiences frequent earthquakes - as well as tsunamis triggered by underwater earthquakes.

Last year, more than 500 people died when a tsunami hit an area of the Java coast after an undersea earthquake.

And in the Asian tsunami of December 2004, more than 130,000 people died in Sumatra when waves destroyed swathes of the province of Aceh.