Terrified residents flee homes after quake

Terrified residents fled their homes in panic after being shaken awake by a huge earthquake.

Terrified residents fled their homes in panic after being shaken awake by a huge earthquake that razed buildings and hurled rocks and debris in Indonesia's main island of Java.

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Thousands ran for the hills as false rumours of a tsunami spread in the wake of the 6.2 magnitude temblor that left at least 200 dead and hundreds more injured, while others wandered dazed and confused in the streets.

"I was shaken from my bed," Brook Weisman-Ross, regional disaster coordinator for the children's charity Plan International, told the BBC.

"As furniture was falling, concrete chunks started falling from my hotel room as people were running out in panic in their bedclothes," he said.

"I heard people in the hotel screaming, children crying and yelling.

"The earthquake was felt to be massive -- larger than the locals here say they've felt in their lives."

Weisman-Ross said that as he crossed town to check on the safety of his workers he saw many collapsed or badly cracked buildings, while chaos erupted on the streets.

"People were panicking with rumours of a tsunami which did not happen," Weisman-Ross later told CNN.

"I heard hundreds of tyres screeching, engines roaring, people yelling ... Many people driving as fast as they could to get uphill," he said. "There's a large amount of stress, fear and uncertainty."

Television pictures showed people, some carrying frightened children, crying and consoling each other on roads strewn with rocks, debris and damaged cars.