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PADANG: Between 170,000 and 200,000 homes were damaged in last week's 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, about half of which were completely destroyed, the Red Cross said on Tuesday.
Based on an estimate of five people per household, a Red Cross official said up to one million people had been directly affected by damage to their homes.
"We estimate there were about 170,000-200,000 houses damaged, 90,000 of those are seriously damaged, meaning you can't live in them," said Bob McKerrow, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Indonesia.
Asked about the death toll, he said: "I think we'll see figures rising to 3,000-plus."
The website of the national Disaster Management Agency showed the latest death toll at 704, with 295 missing, on Tuesday.
It said there were 101,653 destroyed houses, 48,967 houses with medium damage and 49,026 houses with light damage.
McKerrow said in his experience many governments underestimated the death toll out of fear of it reflecting badly on them.
"Whether it's Pakistan or Gujarat (in India) you get reluctance from governments (to give figures). They don't like people dying," he said.
- AFP/sc
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