Padaiyappa with u

Surrounded by a tangled mass of wreckage Japanese disaster relief workers at the site of a collapsed building in Padang. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

JAKARTA - Up to 4,000 people are still trapped in rubble following the devastating 7.6-magnitude quake that struck Indonesia this week, the UN and Red Cross told AFP Saturday.

'We estimate about 3,000 to 4,000 people are still trapped or buried under the rubble,' UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Indonesia El-Mostafa Benlamlih told AFP.

Bob McKerrow, head of the Indonesia delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, said his estimate was 4,000, based on his tour of the city of Padang and surrounding countryside.

'We're up to 4,000. People don't like those figures out - they don't want the families to be grieving too much,' he told AFP.

Some victims have yet to receive help. In a district north of the hard-hit city of Padang, stricken residents said they'd seen no rescue workers. Most structures there had been levelled, and people were using shovels and their bare hands to clear landslides and dig out bodies.

As the first foreign relief teams made their way to the scene, Indonesian officials said a lack of heavy digging equipment was hampering the search. 'Heavy equipment and rescuers are our priority,' said spokesman Priyadi Kardono of the Health Ministry's national disaster management agency.

Mr Kardono said on Friday that 715 people have been confirmed dead and 2,400 hospitalised. UN spokesman Laksmita Noviera in Jakarta said the United Nations fears the toll could rise to 1,100.

That appeared a conservative estimate. Mr Kardono said nearly 3,000 people may still be trapped under rubble. It is the first confirmed government figure for the missing, suggesting that the final death toll could be in the thousands.

The damage from the undersea quake was believed most extensive around Padang, a coastal town of 900,000 people and the capital of heavily populated West Sumatra province.

But about 80km to the north, in the rural, hilly district of Pariaman, which is home to about 370,000 people, an Associated Press reporter saw virtually no buildings still standing. The region was largely cut off and had received no outside help, leaving many to clear roads of landslides and dig out bodies using shovels and bare hands.

Officials said more than 10,000 homes and buildings had been destroyed there. It was unclear how many had died. -- AP, AFP