Makassar(Indonesia), Sep 29: A powerful earthquake hit central Indonesia on Friday, causing a tsunami that slammed into a city on Sulawesi island with officials saying the tremor had levelled “many” buildings.
Indonesia’s Metro TV channel quoted one hospital official as saying at least 30 people had died but this has not been confirmed. Nugroho said families had been reported missing and communications and power supplies disrupted, hampering efforts to get information
The shallow 7.5 magnitude quake sparked terror among locals who fled into the streets and raced to higher ground fearing tsunami waves.
The disaster agency briefly issued a tsunami warning before lifting it.
But dramatic video footage filmed from the top floor of a parking ramp spiral in Palu, a city of 350,000 nearly 80 kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, showed a churning wall of whitewater mow down several buildings and inundate a large mosque.
Rahmat Triyono, head of the agency’s earthquake and tsunami division, later confirmed the city was struck by a freak wave.
People living hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre reported feeling the massive shake, hours after a smaller jolt killed at least one person in the same part of the Southeast Asian archipelago.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries after the latest tremor, but it was a higher magnitude than a series of quakes that killed hundreds on the island of Lombok this summer.
The quake hit just off central Sulawesi at a shallow depth of some 10 kilometres just before 6:00 pm local time (1100 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.
Early witness reports said the tsunami had claimed lives on Talise beach in Palu city. “Many corpses are scattered on the beach and floating on the surface of the sea,” Nining, a resident, told Kompas.com Nining said she had identified victims amongst the debris of the coastal area, which has reportedly sustained severe damage.
Search and rescue teams have been sent to hard-hit areas, Nugroho said on Saturday. On Friday he said military transport planes and helicopters would be deployed on Saturday, along with “all national potential”.
