JAKARTA, 3 September 2009 (IRIN) - Thousands of Indonesians are struggling to find shelter the day after a powerful earthquake, which killed at least 57 people, struck off the coast of the heavily populated Java island.

More than 26,800 houses were damaged and 334 collapsed in West Java, according to government figures provided to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Indonesia.

The latest number of displaced people was estimated at 3,118, although the figure could fluctuate in the next few days as residents and authorities assess the safety of damaged homes, said OCHA's Indonesia head, Ignacio Leon-Garcia.

"We still don't know the severity of the damage. But for the time being, I think the focus of the relief effort will be on shelter," said Leon-Garcia.

"It is still quite difficult to determine the number of IDPs [internally displaced people]," he told IRIN.

The earthquake hit during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, and local television showed residents forced to eat their pre-dawn meals outside their homes.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it was distributing 1,500 family tents to those affected by the earthquake in West Java and Cilacap district in Central Java.

It said in a statement that its volunteers had erected eight platoon tents in three affected districts and were distributing clean water, sarongs, blankets, tarpaulins, sleeping mats and hygiene kits.

In the hours following the disaster, more than 100 Red Cross staff and volunteers carried out search and rescue operations, evacuated people to safe areas and provided first aid to the injured in 12 districts.

Aid group World Vision said several thousand families in Pengalengan and neighbouring areas in West Java had spent the night of 2 September sleeping in the open because of damage to their houses.

"They need blankets, tarpaulins and other basic support," Ivan Tagor, a World Vision assessment team leader, said in a statement.

The National Agency for Disaster Management said the death toll had risen to 57 as more bodies were found in Cianjur district, one of the hardest-hit in West Java province.

Rescue workers used bare hands and manual tools to uncover the bodies after the quake triggered a landslide that sent rocks slamming into houses in Cikangkareng village in Cianjur.

The agency has dispatched four trucks carrying tents, kitchen utensils, clothing and blankets to affected people there.

"The number of people killed could be higher because we have yet to get the full picture of the disaster," said Yusuf Effendi, head of the West Java Disaster Relief Coordinating Agency.

The quake was felt strongly in the capital, Jakarta, shaking buildings and sending residents fleeing their homes and high-rise office towers in panic. At least one person was killed and 27 hospitalised in Jakarta.

The Health Ministry said at least 422 were injured, while the West Java agency put the number of injured at 167.

The quake struck 142km southwest of Tasikamalaya, West Java, at a depth of 49.5km, according to geologists. The state-run Antara news agency said on 2 September that a tsunami early-warning system in the coastal town of Pelabuhan Ratu in West Java had not worked properly when the earthquake struck.

The system sounded for 10 seconds but then stopped, Antara said.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago nation, straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to seismic activity.

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