A strong aftershock rattled Indonesia's quake- ravaged island of Nias early Saturday as the death toll from this week's temblor reached 514 with more than 55,000 homeless. The latest earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, rattled Nias and other islands off the west coast of Sumatra at 3.32 a.m. local time, said Edison Gurning, a spokesman for Jakarta's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. Gurning said the aftershock's epicentre was in the Indian Ocean, about 195 kilometres south of Nias main district town Gunung Sitoli and occurred at about 15 kilometres beneath the seabed. He did not say whether the latest aftershock had caused fresh damage to structural buildings on Nias, the island devastated by Monday's 8.7-magnitude earthquake. More than 130 aftershocks have been recorded since the initial quake struck on March 28. R.E. Nainggolan, an official at the office of National Disaster Agency said by Saturday afternoon 514 bodies had been recovered following the March 28 earthquake. An official at the United Nations relief agency said the final toll from this week's disaster could reach 1,300 with most of the deaths occurring in Nias, which was closest to the epicentre, about 1,500-kilometres northwest of Jakarta. "Rescue workers continue with their search for more survivors and bodies believed still buried under rubble of collapsed homes and buildings," Nainggolan told Jakartas Elshinta radio. Indonesia's National Information Agency estimated 56,064 people had been made homeless.
