Indonesia quake-tsunami

The disaster agency says the Indonesia quake death toll rises to 310.

Rescuers picking through the grim aftermath of Indonesia's quake-tsunami issues a fresh public health warning as more decaying corpses were unearthed from beneath the ruined city of Palu.

Officials says the death toll had climbed to 1,649 with more than a thousand maybe still missing in the seaside city on Sulawesi island, after the region was hit by a powerful quake and a wall of water. — AFP

Indonesia's disaster agency says the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Sulawesi island last week has risen to 1,649.

Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho says 265 people are reportedly missing, though more may be buried under deep mud and the rubble of homes and buildings that have collapsed.

He provided the updated figure Saturday at a news conference in Jakarta.

The twin disasters struck Palu and surrounding districts in Central Sulawesi province on Sept. 28. — AP

Indonesia's disaster agency says the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that struck central Sulawesi island a week ago has surged past 1,500.

The agency, which earlier Thursday says the death toll was 1,424, updated the number of dead to 1,558 on Twitter later the same day.

The disasters struck Palu and surrounding districts in Central Sulawesi province last Friday. — AP

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has arrived in a hard-hit city to see damage and recovery from the earthquake and tsunami that struck a central island last week.

Widodo was expected to tour various areas and visit a hospital Wednesday. The government has said hundreds of people were severely injured in Friday's disasters. And the official toll of 1,234 dead is expected to grow as more bodies are recovered in the damaged areas.

He said foreign aid is starting to reach the area. President Donald Trump called Widodo on Tuesday to offer assistance with both the emergency phase and reconstruction.

Widodo said there's still a lot of work to be done, but he added that conditions are improving. 

"Logistics are in and continue to spread, there are places that we haven't reached," he said. "I've instructed the governor to recommend the markets to be reopened, we want to start reviving the economy." — AP

Indonesia's disaster agency says the death toll from an earthquake and tsunami disaster on a central island is now 1,234.

Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho updated the figure at a news conference in Jakarta on Tuesday afternoon.

The magnitude 7.5 earthquake and the tsunami it generated struck Palu and nearby areas on central Sulawesi island.

Nugroho said 799 people are severely injured. He said the communities of Sigi and Balaroa have not been counted yet, meaning the toll is likely to rise. — AP

Malacañang offers condolences to Indonesia after a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck the island of Sulawesi last Friday.

It says the only Filipino in the area was reported safe by the Foreign Affairs department. 

The death toll has reached 420, Indonesian state media reported, amid a warning from Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla that it could rise into the thousands.

The death toll from Indonesia's quake and tsunami jumped to 384, the disaster agency says, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured and rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region.

So far, it said all the deaths were recorded in tsunami-struck Palu, a day after waves 1.5 meters (five feet) high slammed into the city of 350,000 in central Sulawesi island. — AFP

Indonesia's disaster agency says the fate of "tens to hundreds" of people involved in a beach festival is unknown after the area was struck by a tsunami.

The festival was in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, which was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings and pooled seawater Saturday. — AP

At least 48 people were killed by a quake-tsunami in an Indonesian city, the country's disaster agency says, announcing its first official death toll.

The agency adds that another 356 people were injured in Palu on Sulawesi island where waves as high as 1.5 meters (five feet) slammed into the city of about 350,000 people. — AFP

A quake-tsunami has left "many dead" in Indonesia, the head of the country's search and rescue agency says Saturday, after waves smashed into a city of 350,000 people on Sulawesi island.

"There are many dead bodies, but the exact number we don’t know," the head of the National Agency of Search and Rescue, Muhammad Syaugi says. — AFP

Thirty bodies are lying at one Indonesian hospital after a quake and tsunami struck Sulawesi island, smashing into a city of 350,000 people, a hospital official tells a TV station.

Friday's tremor was centred 78 kilometres north of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, but was felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on the neighbouring island of Kalimantan, Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

The initial tremor, which was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks, struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world's biggest Muslim majority country on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy.

Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.

It lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.  — AFP