Jakarta: A tsunami up to 1.5 metres high has hit Indonesian cities on the island of Sulawesi after a series of earthquakes – including a major 7.5 shock – struck offshore on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
At least one person has been confirmed dead and ten injured, but there are multiple unconfirmed reports of people and even entire families missing. Authorities have said the death toll will rise, but they don't have any idea how many more casualties there will be.
Telecommunications have mostly been cut off by the disaster and darkness is hampering the rescue effort and the flow of information.
This latest quake comes after a series of earthquakes in July and August killed at least 623 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings on the Indonesian island of Lombok, which is situated hundreds of kilometres south-west of Sulawesi.
Buildings have collapsed and homes have been swept away following the earthquake and tsunami, which struck at 6.02pm local time (8.02pm AEST), while at least 22 aftershocks were recorded in the first two hours afterwards.
While the epicentre of the quake was closest to Donggala, a city of about 270,000 people, the tsunami hit both that city and the nearby city of Palu, which is home to about 330,000 and is the capital of the province of central Sulawesi. Sulawesi is about 1600 kilometres north-east of Jakarta.
Authorities received information that Palu had been hit, said Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, amid a rapid series of aftershocks.
The tsunami occurred at 6.27pm local time and the warning was lifted at 6.36pm, Dwikorita said.
"The 1.5- to two-metre tsunami has receded," Dwikorita said. "The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore."
Amateur footage of the tsunami has already gone viral on social media and has been shown on local TV stations. It has not been officially verified yet. It depicts huge waves crashing into houses along Palu's shoreline.
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo tweeted late on Friday evening: "At sunset an earthquake hit Central Sulawesi and surroundings. I am monitoring [the development] and keep my staff on alert to deal with all possibilities after the quakes. Hoping all our brothers and sisters there staying calm and safe".
The national search and rescue agency will deploy a large ship and helicopters to aid with the operation, said agency chief Muhammad Syaugi, adding that he had not been able to contact his team in Palu.
Earlier on Friday, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said it was having difficulty reaching some authorities in Palu and the fishing town of Donggala, closest to the epicentre of the quake 80 kilometres away at a shallow 10 kilometres underground.
Palu airport has been closed, at this stage, until Saturday evening.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7.
More than 600,000 people live in Donggala and Palu.
"The (second) quake was felt very strongly, we expect more damage and more victims," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, BNPB spokesman said.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In 2004, an earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
with Reuters
