Rescue of earthquake victims underway in Indonesia

PADANG, Indonesia, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Over 3,000 rescuers, including soldiers, policemen, paramedics, fire fighters and volunteers, are striving to evacuate the victims of Wednesday's strong quake in West Sumatra province of Sumatra island.

In the provincial capital of Padang, rescuers are attempting to evacuate a lecturer from a collapsed building. She was trapped with 16 other people under the debris -- they are having a lesson when the earthquake of 7.6 magnitude hit and destroyed the whole building.

Rescuers carry a victim's body in the Sumatran city of Padang, Indonesia,  on Oct. 2, 2009. 1,100 people were killed in a powerful earthquake Wednesday  evening and the number could rise to thousands as many people were still  trapped in the debris. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei)

With very simple and manual equipment, rescuers are trying to pull out the lecturer, who is among more than 1,000 people estimated trapped under building debris.

Paramedics are standby in the scene to give an initial help. They are equipped with an ambulance, infuse equipment, Oxygen supplier and equipment to treat broken bone.

"The problem is that many of the victims are hemmed in the cement, we must be very careful to pull them out, " military officer named only Indra G told Xinhua.