count is 104 dead.... latest count


By CHRIS BRUMMITT

(AP) Indonesian girls line up before attending classes in a makeshift tent Monday, July 17, 2006 on the...
Full Image

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A powerful earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into beach resorts on Indonesia's Java island Monday, killing at least 69 people and leaving scores missing and sending thousands fleeing to higher ground, officials and witnesses said.

Regional agencies had issued bulletins that the 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake was strong enough to send a killer wave steaming toward the country worst hit by the 2004 tsunami, but they did not reach the victims because the island has no warning system.

The hardest-hit area appeared to be Pangandaran, an idyllic beach resort long popular with local and foreign tourists, where witnesses said people shouted "Tsunami! Tsunami!" and climbed trees or crowded inland mosques as the wave approached.

Red Cross official Arifin Muhadi told The Associated Press that 69 people were killed, most in Pangandaran, and that 77 others were missing.

"We are still evacuating areas and cross-checking data," he said.