The toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia soared on Sunday to 832 confirmed dead, with authorities fearing it will only climb as rescuers struggle to reach outlying communities cut off from communications and help.

Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of two hotels and a mall in the city of Palu, which was hit by waves as high as six metres (20 feet) following the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday.

A woman was pulled alive from the debris of the city’s Roa Roa Hotel, where up to 60 people were believed trapped. Hundreds of people gathered at the wrecked mall searching for the loved ones.

With most of the confirmed deaths from Palu, authorities are bracingformuchworse as reports filter in from outlying areas, in particular, Donggala, a region of 3,00,000people north of Paluand close totheepicentreof thequake, and two other districts.

May cross 1,000: V-PJusuf Kalla

Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said the toll could rise into the thousands.

President Joko Widodo visited a housing complex flattened when the quake liquefied the soil it stood on, and called for patience.

“I know there are many problems that need to be solved in a short time, including communications,” he said.

The ruins would be rebuilt, he said, as aftershocks rattled the region 48 hours after the quake.

Scores of residents shouted “we’re hungry, we need food” as soldiers distributed rations from a truck in one neighbourhood, while elsewhere television showed pictures of people making off with clothes and other items from a wrecked mall.

Internal Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, asked about reports of sporadic looting, said he had ordered authorities to help people get food and drink and businesses would be compensated.

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A man examines earthquake and tsunami victims who were placed outside the Bhayangkara Hospital after a quake in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia September 30, 2018.

A spokesperson for the national disaster mitigation agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, told a news conference that the affected area was bigger than initially thought, and rescuers only had good access to one of four affected districts—Palu.

“We haven’t received reports from the three other areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don’t know for sure what is the impact,” he said.

“There are many areas where the search and rescue teams haven’t been able to reach,” Nugroho said, adding that teams needed heavy equipment to move broken concrete and debris.

Donggala town has been damaged badly, according to a reporter on the scene.

Foreign nationals

Five foreigners — three French, one South Korean and one Malaysian — were among the missing, Nugroho said. The 832 dead included people crushed in the quake and swept away by the tsunami.

About 16,000 displaced people needed clean water, Nugroho said, while 540 were injured, many getting treatment in tents.

Indonesia, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, is all too familiar with deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. In 2004, a quake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 2,26,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 1,20,000 in Indonesia.

Defunct tsunami buoys

Questions are sure to be asked why warning systems set up after that disaster appear to have failed on Friday. Nugroho, bemoaning afall in funding, said no tsunami buoys, one type of instrument used to detect the waves, in Indonesia had been operating since 2012.

The meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the quake but lifted it 34minutes later, drawing criticism it had been too hasty. But officials estimated the waves had hit while the warning was in force.

Hundreds of people had gathered for a festival on Palu’s beach when the water surged. A disaster official said the tsunami travelled across the sea at speeds of 800kph (500mph).

Video on social media showed water bearing whirls of debris rushing in as people shouted in alarm and scattered.

 

 

 

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