Almost 400 people have died after a tsunami up to 2 meters high swept away houses in at least two cities, including the tourist resort of Palu on Sulawesi island. Officials warned the death toll is likely to rise. A tsunami triggered by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday evening crashed into at least two cities, including the popular tourist resort of Palu, killing almost 400 people and injuring some 540 others.
The tsunami, up to 2 meters high, swept away houses in Palu, the capital of central Sulawesi province. It also struck a smaller city, Donggala, closer to the epicenter of the quake 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency put the official death toll at 384 based on hospital reports, almost all of them in the hard-hit city of Palu.
“When the [tsunami] threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Saturday.
Communications in the area have been cut due to power outages, hampering rescue and clean-up efforts. The city’s airport was also closed after its runway and a control tower were damaged in the quake. Officials said they were rushing to reopen the airport to allow aid to come in.
A smartphone video circulating on social media showed a powerful wave hitting Palu with people screaming and fleeing in panic. The wave damaged several buildings, including a mosque.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the military had been called into the region to help search-and-rescue teams reach victims and retrieve bodies.
Nugroho described the damage as “extensive,” adding that thousands of houses, hospitals, shopping malls and hotels had collapsed, while a bridge had also been washed away.
Almost 700,000 people live in Palu and Donggala. The Sulawesi capital is built around a narrow bay which supposedly intensified the tsunami’s force as it crashed into the tight inlet.
‘Ring of Fire’
The tsunami was triggered by a shallow quake earlier on Friday just off central Sulawesi that also flattened buildings. The massive tremors could be felt hundreds of kilometers away from the epicenter. Strong aftershocks continued to be felt on Saturday morning.
Such shallow quakes tend to be more destructive. Experts say the tremor was more powerful than the series of quakes that killed hundreds on the Indonesian island of Lombock in July and August.
Indonesia, which is located on the “Ring of Fire,” is prone to earthquakes. Another smaller earthquake had struck the Palu area earlier on Friday, destroying some homes and killing at least one person in Donggala.
In December 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing nearly 230,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
dm, cw, ap/sms (AP, Reuters)
