Many houses and building, including hotels along the worst affected coast of Pangandaran, Ciamis district, Indonesia's West Java province, have been seriously destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami Monday afternoon.

"There are about 20 dead bodies in our hospital," a medical worker told Xinhua reporters who visited a small hospital along the coast area hit by the earthquake and tsunami at 15:19 local time on Monday.

There was a foreign visitor among the dead bodies and he looked like a Dutch, said the medical worker who refused to tell his name.

Some rescue people are digging two bodies hiding below big flagstones.

An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck southern coast of Java on Monday afternoon. The quake that was followed by a tidal wave killed at least 100 people, while hundreds of others remained missing and thousands of others sought refugee to a safer place, the "Kompas" daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Rescue work is going on with the participation of military and police, government officials said.

Source: Xinhua