All hospitals in the southern Java province were overwhelmed with patients, with paramedics saying medical supplies were running out Sunday, a day after a powerful earthquake struck the region.

The 5.9-magnitude quake that struck the Indonesian ancient province of Yogyakarta and part of Central Java province Saturday morning killed more than 3,000 people and injured more than 10,000 others.

Some 4,000 houses have been flattened and roads and bridges destroyed in the worst quake in the Southeast Asian country since Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered a tsunami, killing more than 230,000 people in countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.

"We normally can accommodate 370 patients, but on Saturday alone we treated more than 1,300 injured people," said Sugeng Amir Marwoto, spokesman for the Panti Rapih Hospital which is one of the biggest in Yogyakarta.

Most of hospitals let their patients rest outside hospitals for fear of aftershocks and the lack of beds. Doctors and medical volunteers treated patients in the grounds of hospitals.

Ambulances kept running on the streets to send critical patients to larger hospitals or deliver bodies to relatives.

Men, women and children slept on the road for fear of aftershocks while residents combed through the rubble, searching for survivors.

Many bodies were still buried under rubble in the disaster- struck region as authorities struggled to bring in aid and rescue teams.

The quake rocked Yogyakarta city, Klaten, Bantul and Gunung Kidul in Yogyakarta Province at around 5.55 a.m. local time (2255 GMT Friday) when many people were sleeping.

"This is the worst disaster I have ever seen in my life," said police officer Sugiharto who was safeguarding a shopping mall destroyed by tremor. Most of the casualties occurred in Bantul regency, where the death toll is estimated at over 2,000.

Located about 500 km east of Jakarta, Yogyakarta is one of the country's most famous popular resort and is given a special autonomy to revive the ancient Javanese kingdom of Mataram. It is also known as "the city of education" with more than 100 universities and millions of students from other parts of the country.

Source: Xinhua