Dozens killed in deadly earthquakes
Updated on 30 September 2009
Thousands are reported trapped among collapsed buildings in Indonesia as an earthquake strikes, hours after a tsunami in the South Pacific kills more than 100 people in Samoa. Jonathon Miller reports.
At least 75 people have died and thousands more are reported to be trapped under collapsed buildings, after an earthquake struck the island of Sumatra.
Indonesia's vice-president said tonight he expected more bodies to be found as investigators searched the rubble.
The grim toll in Sumatra followed a tsunami in the South Pacific, caused by an underwater earthquake which killed more than 100 people in Samoa and American Samoa.
The epicentre of today's quake was 30 miles off the coast of the Indonesian island, near the city of Padang.
The tsunami, which hit Samoa yesterday evening, wiped out the low-lying areas of the Samoan islands. It was not connected to today's quake in Indonesia, which is part of a different faultline.
Dr Simon Boxall from the National Oceanography Centre told Jon Snow that unfortunately the earthquakes were "not out of the ordinary." "Its quite common to get earthquakes around the world at any stage," he said.
"Its unfortunate that we've had two reasonably major earthquakes. The earthquake in Samoa was about the 10th the power of the earthquake we observed in 2004 on Boxing day. The Sumatra one about a 15th of that scale.
"They both caused significant damage but sadly this is the way our planet works."
