Indonesia tsunami and quake: Over 400 killed, 500 injured in Palu and Donggala

More than 400 people were left dead after a tsunami triggered by a 7.5 Magnitude of the earthquake hit two central Indonesian cities on Friday.

All communications have been broken and even as the rescuers struggle to reach the damaged areas – their progress hindered by the shattered bridge and a devastated landscape – the death toll is expected to rise on Saturday.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 400 people were killed in the hard-hit city of Palu. But the numbers are expected to rise, with the news that at least 540 others were injured.

“Many bodies were found along the shoreline because of the tsunami, but the numbers are still unknown,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“When the threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims,” he added.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of many people, who were preparing for the beach festival due to start Friday evening are still unknown, with rescuers not being able to reach the place due to broken roads and transportation problems.

Nugroho added that, reports the agency that ‘tens to hundreds’ of people were taking part in a beach festival in Palu when the tsunami struck.

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Donggala and Mamuju were also severely affected by the 3-meter (10-foot) – high tsunami. The three towns together are home to more than 600,000 people.

But with the roads damaged and the main airport of Palu closed, rescue operations have not yet started in these areas.

Because it lies in the ‘Ring of fire’ – the main line of volcanic eruptions in the Pacific basin – Indonesia is more prone to earthquakes.

Earlier, In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake in the Sumatra Island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people across in the Indian Ocean.