Rumours Start Panic: Pangandaran, West Java

It is only natural human instinct to react when you are in the midst of a disaster when rumours abound that more tsunamis are on the way or the ground starts to shake violently.

Jittery residents fled the resort town of Pangandaran hardest-hit by the Indonesian tsunami on amid unfounded rumours another killer wave was about to hit. The death toll meanwhile rose to 531. Shouting "the water is coming!" more than 1,000 people ran from the beach area or jumped on bikes or in cars and headed inland.

"People suddenly started running so I joined them" said Marino a 42 year old man caught up in the panic which spread quickly among the town's traumatized residents before dying down after around 30 minutes.

A magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake Monday triggered two-meter high walls of water that smashed a 180 kilometre stretch of beach on Java which was unaffected by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami.

The waves reached 200 meters inland in some places destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats were left mangled in fishing nets, furniture and other debris.

Police and army teams with sniffer dogs and mechanical equipment on kept searching for survivors but found only bodies amid the ruins pushing the death toll to 531, said Maman Susanto, from the government's national disaster coordinating board.

He said a further 275 were listed as missing.