By Razak Ahmad and Sunanda Creagh
PADANG, Indonesia (Reuters) - Health workers doused the Indonesian city of Padang with disinfectant to ward off disease outbreaks, and helicopters dropped aid to desperate survivors six days after a devastating earthquake.
Jakarta's Metro TV said an Australian search and rescue team were investigating after workers reportedly heard a woman crying for help under the rubble of the collapsed Dutch-colonial era Ambacang hotel in the city's centre.
But the rescue mission in the port city of 900,000, and in surrounding hills ravaged by landslides, has been all but abandoned for a relief effort to help thousands of displaced.
Aid is pouring in, but the scale of the disaster, heavy rains and road damage means relief aid is trickling in to survivors.
"I have seen reports on TV of boxes piling up at the airport and not making it to victims," said Gamawan Fauzi, the governor of West Sumatra. "That's not fair. Those are the secondary items, not the priority items like food and water."
Since the quake, villagers have told Reuters correspondents in a number of areas little if any aid had arrived.
"It is difficult to get water because it is being contaminated," said Agus, a resident in the Padang Alai area in the hills outside Padang. "There is no electricity and it is difficult for us to get food and medicine."
Peter Guest, deputy country director for the World Food Programme in Indonesia, said WFP was distributing fortified biscuits in the area.
Metro TV showed survivors scrabbling for food aid boxes dropped by helicopters.
Governor Fauzi denied aid was falling into the wrong hands.
"The receipt of aid is signed off by the head of each sub-district. So we know what they have received. I think the risk of corruption is small, but if anyone is caught doing that they must punished," Fauzi said.
Rotting bodies were a big hazard and health experts said they were monitoring any outbreak of cholera and tetanus.
"There are corpses, there are flies, water is scarce. It all makes infection easy," said Rustam Pakaya, head of the crisis centre at the health ministry. "Therefore, we are spraying disinfectants in Padang city. We will also do fogging for mosquitoes."
Half-collapsed buildings in Padang were being knocked down by heavy machinery on Tuesday, despite fears many bodies may still be under the rubble.
At the Ambacang hotel, rescuers were trying to extract bodies, before work was temporarily stopped to check on the report a cry for help was heard.
"It smells very, very bad in there now," said a rescue official, Abdul Rasyid. "We think there are about 80 bodies left, some in the pool but most in the lobby."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono criticised local officials on Monday for not focussing enough on emergency needs and too much on reconstruction needs.
"What I want to know is what is being done for emergency steps, such as food supply, electricity supply, fuel supply and other aspects," Yudhoyono said before a cabinet meeting.
But he also called for an Aceh-style reconstruction.
"In my view, I think we could implement what has been done in Aceh, Nias and Yogykarta," he added.
The rebuilding of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra after the 2004 tsunami has largely been held up as success, while massive rehabilitation also took place on Nias island in Sumatra, and in the city of Yogyakarta in Java after ruinous quakes.
Indonesia's official toll from the quake is 625 dead and 295 missing, but the health minister said it could reach 3,000.
(Additional reporting by Olivia Rondonuw and Muklis Ali in JAKARTA; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Bill Tarrant)