Indonesia may declare four villages lost under landslides that followed last week's earthquake as mass graves. At least 400 are believed to have been buried alive in mountainside villages.
The 7.6 magnitude quake caused landslides in the hills north of the western city of Padang, an ABC report said, and a week later, the local governor has conceded that people in many of those villages will not be found alive.
"If after umpteen days the bodies are broken, if we dig them up probably their arms will break off, their legs will break off, it's no good," West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi told reporters in Padang, the provincial capital and worst hit city, The Australian cites from an AFP report.
"If the community is willing, from a religious angle it is okay not to rebury them. So that area would be designated a mass grave."
The official death toll reportedly stands at about 700, but the Red Cross believes the final number will be more than 3,000.
FULL STORY
Indonesia may declare earthquake villages mass graves (The Australian/AFP)
Buried villages to be declared mass graves (ABC)
PHOTO CREDIT
Stills from a YouTube video uploaded by user indahnesia, on villages that "have been wiped off the map".