The death toll from the earthquake off Indonesia’s Sumatra island rose to at least 1,100 as doctors trying to treat hundreds of injured people struggled with a shortage of space, medicine and fuel for electricity.

John Holmes, the United Nations humanitarian chief, told a press briefing in New York yesterday that at least 1,100 were killed by the 7.6-magnitude quake on Sept. 30. The toll will probably rise as rescuers reach damaged areas, he said. Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency today put the death toll at 390.

“It is feared that thousands of people are trapped under damaged houses,” Holmes said. At least 500 buildings have collapsed and hundreds of people are trapped in two hotels in the city of Padang, the Ambacang and the Bumi Minang, he said.

At Siti Rahma Islamic hospital, 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Padang, Susi Rahmawati, a 30-year-old doctor, had been working since dawn yesterday treating more than 100 patients who spilled out into the hallways. It was dusk, and the hospital had enough fuel to operate for three more hours.

“The situation is really bad,” Rahmawati, dressed in blue trousers, a blue shirt and gray headscarf, said. “We don’t have enough doctors and nurses. We’re really hoping that we get more medical supplies because we are running out of them.”

Rescuers were racing to save as many people as they can from the rubble of crushed homes, schools, mosques, commercial buildings and shops. Thousands were still trapped in the wreckage, the disaster agency said.

Salvaging Belongings

In Air Pacah, a suburb about 10 minutes by car from Padang’s city center, most of the shops were collapsed and residents were trying last night to salvage whatever they could from the wrecked buildings, as excavators moved pieces of crushed structures. A rescue worker said hundreds were trapped inside, probably dead.

The Disaster Management agency sent 200 large military tents, 1,000 portable tents, 5,000 blankets, 5,000 mats to Padang, and the Social Affairs Ministry sent three tons of food, including 9,000 kilograms of rice and 48,000 cans of sardines, the Disaster Management agency said on its Web site today.

Girl’s Leg Amputated

One of the injured at Siti Rahma hospital was Salsabila, a 7-year-old girl who was reciting the Koran with other children in a mosque near her home when the earthquake struck, her mother, who was with her at the hospital, said. The building collapsed, and Salsabila’s legs got stuck under a crushed wall.

The girl’s father, Armen, a 40-year-old civil servant, drove Salsabila and her mother more than an hour on a motorbike to Siti Rahma hospital after the hospital in Padang had to turn them away because it was damaged. Surgeons later had to amputate Salsabila’s left leg.

Rahmawati said about 100 patients are at the hospital, most of whom have broken bones. About 20 patients need surgery, she said. Two have died. The hospital has two surgeons and one anesthesiologist, none of whom have left the hospital in the past two days, Rahmawati said.

The U.S. has provided $300,000 in assistance to Indonesia and set aside an additional $3 million to be used once needs are assessed, Ian Kelly, a State Department spokesman, told reporters in Washington yesterday. The U.S. is also sending a disaster-response team, he said.

Indonesian rescue workers and doctors were on their way to Padang to join the search for victims, Rustam Pakaya, a health ministry official, said by telephone in Jakarta yesterday. The government is sending 92 doctors and 5 metric tons of medicine to the city, he said.

Medicine, Biscuits

“We’ve sent 20 tons of medicine and 50 tons of biscuits to Padang,” Pakaya said. “We have gathered medics from many institutions, including 32 from the military and 30 from the police.”

A 6.8-magnitude quake hit at 8:52 a.m. local time yesterday in Jambi province, 225 kilometers southeast of Padang, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site. It was felt in Singapore about 500 kilometers away.

“We have not received reports of deaths from Jambi,” Harce Winerungan, a spokesman at the National Disaster Management Agency, said in an interview by phone in Jakarta. “The Jambi quake damaged some homes but the impact is far less than the Padang one.”

Padan’g Teluk Bayur seaport, a key exit point for the country’s rubber and palm oil exports, resumed operation late yesterday after a landslide blocking the road was cleared, Bambang S. Ervan, a spokesman at the ministry, said by phone in Jakarta.

It’s the second earthquake to cause fatalities in Indonesia in less than a month after a magnitude-7 temblor south of Java on Sept. 2 left 82 people dead.

A tsunami generated by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off northern Sumatra in December 2004 left about 220,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.

To contact the reporters on this story: Soraya Permatasari at soraya@bloomberg.net; Achmad Sukarsono in Jakarta at asukarsono@bloomberg.net;