Aid mission begins after 330 die as islands hit by volcano and tsunami

Helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed yesterday on remote Indonesian islands slammed by a tsunami that killed more than 300 people, while elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a state visit to Vietnam to deal with the dual disasters that struck Indonesia in one 24-hour period, straining the country's ability to respond to the emergencies.

The first aerial surveys of the region hit by the 10ft tsunami revealed huge areas of land underwater and the crumbled rubble of homes torn apart by the wave.

One house lay tilted, resting on the edge of its red roof, with tires and slabs of concrete piled up on the surrounding sand.

Two days after an undersea earthquake spawned the killer wave, the casualty count was still rising as rescuers landed for the first time on the Mentawai island chain, which was closest to the epicentre and the worst hit. Bad weather had kept them away previously.

The first cargo plane loaded with 16 tonnes of tents, medicine, food and clothes arrived yesterday afternoon, said disaster official Ade Edward.

Four helicopters also landed in Sikakap, a town on North Pagai island, which will be the centre of relief operations.

"Finally we have a break in the weather," said Mr Edward, putting the number of people killed by the wave so far at 311.

"We have a chance now to look for more than 400 still missing." He said the searches would take place by helicopter.

Meanwhile, about 800 miles to the east in central Java, disaster officials were scouring the slopes of Indonesia's most volatile volcano for survivors after it was rocked by an eruption on Tuesday that killed at least 30 people, including an 83-year-old man who had refused to abandon his ceremonial post as caretaker of Mount Merapi's spirits.

Maridjan - entrusted by a highly respected late king to watch over the volcano - has for years led ceremonies in which rice and flowers were thrown into the crater to appease the mountain.

"We found his body," said Suseno, a rescue worker, amid reports that he was kneeling face-down on the floor, a typical Islamic prayer position, when he died.

Authorities warned the thousands who fled Merapi's wrath not to return during yesterday's lull in volcanic activity, but some villagers were desperate to check on crops and possessions left behind.

In several areas, everything - from the thinnest tree branches to chairs and tables inside homes - was caked with ash that looked like powdery snow.

The Tuesday night blast eased pressure that had been building up behind a lava dome perched on the crater.However, experts warned the dome could still collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.

"It's a little calmer today," said Surono, the chief of Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation. "No hot clouds, no rumbling. But a lot of energy is pent up back there. There's no telling what's next."

Both the quake and the volcanic eruption happened along Indonesia's portion of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a series of fault lines that are prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity stretching from the western hemisphere through Japan and south-east Asia.