Indonesia tsunami: Death toll hikes up to 222, over 800 injured

The death toll from a tsunami triggered by the eruption of a volcano in Indonesia has hit 222, with more than 800 injured, officials said.

Indonesia’s national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said “222 people are dead, 843 people are injured and 28 people are missing”.

“This number is predicted to increase because not all victims have been successfully evacuated, not all health centres have reported victims and not all locations have got complete data,” he added.

Scores of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit the coast of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java about 9.30pm on Saturday following the eruption of a volcano known as the “child” of the legendary Krakatoa, Nugroho said.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Immigration Department said it had not yet received calls from Hongkongers in need of assistance. The department was also in contact with the Chinese embassy in Indonesia, the spokesman said.

Images broadcast on television showed the wave pushed a tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber, rubble and flotsam inland from the coast at Carita beach, a popular day-tripping spot on the west coast of Java.

Elsewhere it uprooted trees and left a trail of debris strewn across the ground.

Muhammad Bintang, who was at Carita beach when the wave hit, described a sudden surge of water that plunged the tourist spot into darkness.

“We arrived at 9pm for our holiday and suddenly the water came - it went dark, the electricity is off,” the 15-year-old said.

“It’s messy outside and we still cannot access the road.”

In Lampung province, on the other side of the strait, Lutfi Al Rasyid said he fled the beach in Kalianda city in fear for his life.

“I could not start my motorbike so I left it and I ran... I just prayed and ran as far as I could,” the 23-year-old said.

Authorities say the tsunami may have been triggered by an abnormal tidal surge due to a new moon and an underwater landslide following the eruption of Anak Krakatoa, which forms a small island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra.

“The combination caused a sudden tsunami that hit the coast,” Nugroho said, but added that Indonesia’s geological agency was working to ascertain exactly how it happened.

He added that the death toll would likely increase.

Video footage posted to social media by Nugroho showed panicked residents clutching flashlights and fleeing for higher ground.

Indonesian authorities initially claimed the wave was not a tsunami, but instead a tidal surge and urged the public not to panic.

Nugroho later apologised for the mistake on Twitter, saying because there was no earthquake it had been difficult to ascertain the cause of the incident early on.

“If there is an initial error we’re sorry,” he wrote.

Among the dead were two members of the Jakarta-based pop-rock outfit Seventeen, its spokeswoman Yulia Dian said, adding that three others from the group and the wife of one of the band members still remain unaccounted for.

A clip shared widely on social media showed Seventeen playing when a large wave crashed into the rear of the beachside stage on which they were performing.

The band was playing at a beach resort in Tanjung Lesung, one of the tourist centres in Pandeglang.

“The wave hit at around 9:30pm, sweeping away our stage that was erected just in front of the beach...and all of the people at the scene,” Yulia said.

Lead singer Ifan, in a video later posted on his Instagram account, tearfully asked fans to pray for the dead and missing from the band.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his sympathy and ordered government agencies to respond quickly to the disaster.

“My deep condolences to the victims in Banten and Lumpung provinces,” he said.

“Hopefully, those who are left have patience.”

Heavy equipment was being transported to badly-hit areas to help search for victims, Nugroho said, adding evacuation posts and public kitchens were being set up for evacuees.

Abu Salim, a member of the Tagana disaster volunteer group, said he helped evacuate victims in Banten province.

“We evacuated the victims who died and were injured, we took them to health clinics ... Most of them suffered from broken bones,” he said, adding he feared more were missing.

Although relatively rare, submarine volcanic eruptions can cause tsunamis due to the sudden displacement of water or slope failure, according to the International Tsunami Information Centre.

Anak Krakatoa is a small volcanic island that emerged from the ocean half a century after Krakatoa’s deadly 1883 eruption which killed more than 36,000 people.

According to Indonesia’s geological agency, Anak Krakatoa had been showing signs of heightened activity for days, spewing plumes of ash thousands of metres into the air.

The volcano erupted again just after 9pm on Saturday, the agency said.

An eruption just before 4pm on Saturday lasted around 13 minutes and sent plumes of ash soaring hundreds of meters into the sky.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plates collide and a large portion of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Most recently in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island a quake and tsunami killed thousands of people.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

Anak Krakatoa is one of 127 active volcanoes which run the length of the archipelago.

-Agencies