Dozens of students found dead as Indonesia rescue ramps up

The bodies of dozens of students have been pulled from their landslide-swamped church in Sulawesi, officials said Tuesday, as an international effort to help nearly 200,000 increasingly desperate Indonesian quake-tsunami victims ground into gear.

The discovery adds to the already-high death toll from Friday's disaster, when a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that smashed into the seaside city of Palu.

At least 844 people are already known to have died, but officials say that number is certain to rise -- perhaps into the thousands -- as isolated communities are reached and the scale of the disaster becomes clearer.

Survivors are battling thirst and hunger, with food and clean water in short supply, and local hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of injured.

Some survivors clambered through detritus hunting for anything salvageable, some crowded around daisy-chained power strips at the few buildings that still have power, others queued for water, cash or petrol being brought in