By RIA Novosti,
Beijng : China has allocated $500,000 in aid to Indonesia hit by two earthquakes that killed at least 1,100 people and injured many more, Chinese media cited on Friday the Foreign Ministry as saying.
The U.K. earlier said it was sending a team of rescuers and search equipment to Indonesia, and Russia’s emergencies ministry said it would send rescue workers, doctors and a mobile hospital to the country.
The island of Sumatra was hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake on Wednesday and by a second earthquake on Thursday with magnitude 6.9. Hundreds of buildings have collapsed, burying people under the rubble.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters at the United Nations headquarters Thursday that there were fears the toll will rise, and Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the number of fatalities could reach several thousand.
The disasters are the latest in a spate of natural and man-caused calamities to hit Indonesia.
Part of the Pacific’s Ring of Fire, Indonesia is in the world’s most seismically active region, registering 6,000-7,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or above annually.
On Wednesday, an earthquake thousands of kilometers to the west caused several tsunamis, which hit the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa, and Tonga, killing hundreds of people.