Another 1495 people have been injured and 128 are missing but the number of people displaced has halved from 11,453 to 5361 as locals begin to return to their homes after a powerful wave hit on Saturday evening.

Nearly 48 hours after the tsunami struck without warning, authorities expect the death toll will continue to rise as they finally gain access to some of the areas hit by the tsunami.

The BMKG, Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, has said it believes the violent eruption by the Anak Krakatoa volcano at about 9pm on Saturday night was the primary trigger for an underwater landslide that in turn triggered the tsunami about 30 minutes later.

It has also said that rain and high waves continued to the landslide and ultimately to the tsunami.

The hardest hit areas include Carita and Tanjung Lesung, both popular tourist destinations, on the island of Java, and Lampung on the island of Sumatra.

Heavy rain battered the Javanese coastline overnight and on into Monday morning, making conditions more difficult for the rescue workers, police and army who are pouring into the disaster zone.

The spokesman for disaster agency BNPB, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, warned that, "People should stay away from the beaches” because of the risk of another tsunami.

Late on Monday evening, Sutopo announced that several areas which had been previously inaccessible because of road blocks caused by debris washed up by the tsunami were now receiving help.

"Officers have been able to access these areas – officers, vehicles, machinery and heavy equipment," he said.

In one of those areas, Sumur, 36 people had been found dead and another 476 people were found injured. Evacuations and rescue efforts will continue there on Tuesday morning.

“This is where the joint search teams have found more victims.”

Indonesian authorities have been criticised for the fact that locals received no warning before the tsunami struck.

Earlier in the day, Sutopo called on the Indonesian government to spend the money on an early warning system that could detect volcano-triggered tsunamis.

"There was no early warning system for the tsunami which caused a lot of victims because people didn’t have a chance to evacuate.”

President Joko Widodo has now ordered that an early warning system that can detect volcanic eruptions and undersea landslides should be purchased.

Indonesia already has an early warning system for earthquake-triggered tsunamis, following the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, though this failed at Palu and cost hundreds of people their lives.

Sutopo said locals had begun to return to their homes after rumours of a second tsunami approaching had spread in the region - authorities had warned such an event was a possibility - but the number of displaced people had since halved.

Anak Krakatoa, or the “child of Krakatoa” has been erupting intermittently for months and there is a chance that another eruption could trigger another tsunami in the area.

Anak Krakatoa began to emerge from the ocean in 1927, 44 years after the huge eruption of the original Krakatoa volcano which killed more than 30,000 people and played havoc with global temperatures and crops.

Many of the beachside villages along the Javanese coastline still appeared all but abandoned on Monday.

Sutopo added that Indonesian authorities were sending more heavy machinery as what had been sent already was not sufficient to deal with the massive destruction.

In the beachside village of Sambolo, one of the hardest-hit areas, at least a dozen cars lay by the roadside, flipped on their side or crushed by debris.

At the Villa Stephanie, six cars sat side-by-side, damaged but not destroyed at the abandoned villa, which took heavy damage from the wave.

Sutopo said the casualties had been found in five affected districts, namely Pandeglang, Serang, South Lampung, Tanggamus and Pesawaran.

Thousands of joint personnel from the police, army, search and rescue agency and various non-government organisations were involved in the effort, Sutopo said.

Heavy equipment was deployed, some from Jakarta about three hours away, to help the excavation.

Indonesia has endured a dreadful year already in terms of natural disasters, with the resort island of Lombok hard hit by a series of earthquakes in August.

The Sulawesi city of Palu was then smashed by an earthquake and tsunami in late September.

The damage in places like Carita and Tanjung Lesung is severe, and these are populated areas too, but, relatively speaking, the damage from the two disasters earlier this year appears to have been more severe.

Mr Joko is expected to visit the disaster zone, which is just over 100km from the capital of Jakarta, later on Monday.