KOMPAS.com - A two-year-old British child was presumed dead last night, one of at least 140 victims of a devastating tsunami which smashed into the Pacific island of Samoa.
There were also concerns for several other Britons who failed to contact relatives after entire villages were flattened or washed into the sea.
Hours after the tsunami hit, two thousand miles away an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale rocked the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 75.
The earthquake brought down buildings, including a hospital, and left thousands trapped under rubble. Officials said the death toll was likely to rise.
The Indonesian quake took place on the same fault-line as the devastating Boxing Day tsunami which killed 230,000.
Though the quakes were thousands of miles apart, both took place along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire', a horseshoe-shaped area of seismic activity ringing the Pacific Ocean basin. The tsunami also struck American Samoa and Tonga.
In Samoa the British child was swept away from its parents when a tidal wave, which reached a height of 35ft according to witnesses, was triggered by an 8.3-magnitude underwater earthquake.
Bodies were carried out to sea or thrown into trees, cars were washed into the ocean and boats were thrown on to the land. The toddler's parents have been given refuge in the New Zealand High Commission.
Dr Stephen Rogers, the British Honorary Consul in the capital, Apia, said he believed about 20 Britons were on the island when the tsunami struck, and several had lost all their possessions.
'We've had calls from a number of Brits in different accommodation who are claiming to be okay,' he said.
But he added: 'We've had calls from the UK about people we've got no information about.'Five Britons in their 20s and 30s were yesterday found alive. In Samoa many islanders and tourists said they did not receive warnings in time.
A 21-year- old woman who only gave her name as Ngutu said: 'Everyone was just walking around as normal after the earthquake, curious about what was going to happen.
'Then out of nowhere this big wave, as tall as the sky, hit. Everyone just started running inland towards the hills, running for our lives.
'We've lost everything. Our whole village is gone. It's all sand and fish in what's left of the houses.'
Actress- turned- psychologist Pamela Stephenson, who was on Samoa filming a documentary about writer Robert Louis Stevenson, a former resident of the island, said a friend of hers was killed.
Miss Stephenson, wife of comedian Billy Connolly, said: 'She and her husband were trying to run to their car.
'They were caught by the waves. She was found on the beach later.' The Queen yesterday sent a message of condolence to the Samoan head of state.
Emergency services feared entire villages in Samoa and American Samoa had been wiped out by the massive waves, which sent terrified residents fleeing for higher ground.
The disaster was compounded when the second powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia, prompting a new tsunami warning for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand. The warning has since been lifted.
Thousands of people are trapped under the rubble in Padang, a city of 900,000, a senior Indonesian health ministry official said.
Rustam Pakaya, the head of the health ministry's disaster centre, said via a telephone text message that a hospital in Padang in the area near the epicentre of the quake had also collapsed.
'Jamil hospital collapsed and thousands of people are trapped in the rubble of buildings,' Pakaya said.
A resident called Adi told Indonesia's Metro Television there was devastation around him. 'For now I can't see dead bodies, just collapsed houses. Some half destroyed, others completely. People are standing around too scared to go back inside. They fear a tsunami.
'No help has arrived yet. I can see small children standing around carrying blankets. Some people are looking for relatives but all the lights have gone out completely.'
In Samoa, signs of devastation from the tsunami were everywhere, with a giant boat washed ashore lying on the edge of a highway and flood waters swallowing up cars and homes.
It struck about 120 miles (190 kilometres) from neighbouring American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.The waves reached as far as Japan, although Hawaii and Australia were spared any severe damage.
In Washington, President Barack Obama declared a disaster for American Samoa. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was deploying teams to provide support and assess damage.
Samoan Prime Minister Sailele Malielegaoi looked shaken today on board a flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to the Samoan capital of Apia.
'So much has gone. So many people are gone,' he told reporters on board. 'I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss.'
Malielegaoi said his own village of Lepa was destroyed. President Thomas Lapua, who lives in the Western Samoan capital of Apia, said: 'These are places that exist because people depend on the sea to fish - now the sea is threatening their lives. It may be some time before we find out the full extent of this.'
The quake hit at 6:48 am local time (17:48 GMT) midway between the two island groups. At least one entire village in American Samoa was reported to have been flattened by the tsunami, later reports said, but confirmation of the destruction was difficult because communications were cut to many areas.
A Samoan resident, Mr Keni Lesa was preparing to take his family to higher ground as the tsunami warning went out. 'We've done a lot of training for this, but it still a shock when it actually happens and you hear the warnings going out on the radio.'
'There are a considerable number of people who've been swept out to sea and are unaccounted for,' New Zealand's acting Prime Minister Bill English said.
