The death toll from last Wednesday's powerful earthquake that devastated West Sumatra province rose to 703 on Tuesday, ANTARA reported. Most of the fatalities were found in Padang City where 327 people perished, according to official data from the West Sumatra natural disaster mitigation task force. The magnitude 7.6 quake also injured 746 people seriously and 1,344 others lightly. By Tuesday afternoon, 295 people were still missing. The quake also forced 410 people to flee their homes. The quake which was centered 78 km northwest of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, at a depth of 71 km in the seabed also caused major damage to 102,046 houses, moderate damage to 49,864 houses and minor damage to 54,606 houses. The quake was felt across Sumatra, including in Medan, Bengkulu, Jambi, and Riau as well as in Malaysia and Singapore.
