Saturday's dawn quake struck while many were still in bed. Houses in the area tended to be poorly constructed, their wooden roofs collapsing on occupants when the quake shook.

Name tags are hung on the foot of quake victims outside the morgue at a hospital in Yogyakarta May 27, 2006. A powerful earthquake struck around Indonesia's royal city of Yogyakarta on Saturday, killing more than 4,600 people as houses and buildings collapsed near ancient heritage sites. [Reuters]

Hospitals struggled to cope. Hundreds of people crammed the corridors and grounds of Yogyakarta's Bethesda hospital.

"There's a lot of severe injuries. It was definitely overwhelmed," said hospital volunteer Andrew Jeremijenko.

"I've been to the other hospitals. They're all overwhelmed. There are not enough nurses or doctors to cope with the load."

Saturday's quake was the third major tremor to hit Indonesia in 18 months. The worst, the December 26, 2004 quake and its resulting tsunami, left some 170,000 people dead or missing around Aceh. Indonesia sits on the Asia-Pacific's so-called "Ring of Fire," marked by heavy volcanic and tectonic activity.

On Sunday morning, a quake measuring 6.7 in magnitude struck the South Pacific island nation of Tonga and the New Britain region of Papua New Guinea was shaken by a 6.2 magnitude quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

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