First Prayers Held Since Earthquake: Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia

Thousands of survivors of the Indonesian earthquake held their first Friday prayers, known as Juma, since the disaster after looters raided aid convoys bringing food and medicines to stranded victims.

Others prayed under makeshift canopies in hard-hit Bantul district south of the city, as their mosques had been destroyed in the disaster.

Meanwhile aftershocks rattled the quake-ravaged region overnight spreading panic among thousands of homeless survivors as aid agencies rushed to send clean water to the area. When I spoke to Candika earlier she told me that she never felt them. Candika is a heavy sleeper!. The aftershocks measured 4.0 on the Richter scale.

The government’s official quake death toll remains at 6,234 and there are also 33,231 people with serious injuries and 12,917 people with minor injuries.

An NGO working in Yogyakarta, Medical aid charity Merlin, raised concerns that some of the quake survivors could now be putting themselves at risk of contracting the deadly bird flu virus. Bird flu has so far killed about 36 Indonesians since late 2003. Merlin said it had found more than 100 quake survivors taking shelter in six large poultry sheds.