Crumpled hotel becomes focus of rescue effort

Squads of orange-clad rescue workers clambered over the tangled remains of an Indonesian hotel yesterday, hoping to dig out 50 to 60 guests still feared trapped following an earthquaketsunami disaster.

Authorities believe the 80room Hotel Roa-Roa in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island was near capacity when the district was ravaged by a 7.5 magnitude quake and a tsunami wave Friday.

“It is assumed there are still 50 to 60 people trapped under the rubble,” said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

A South Korean is among those believed to be stuck inside.

Rescue workers are making the hotel a focus of their efforts to save lives.

But they face a race against time to locate and extract survivors before injuries, exhaustion or dehydration take hold.

“We even heard people calling for help there at the Roa-Roa hotel yesterday,” Mohammad Syaugi, the head of the national Search and Rescue Agency, told journalists.

At least one person has been pulled out alive, he added.