At least 337 people were killed and 510 injured by the tsunami that smashed into the southern coast of Indonesia's Java island, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
PANGANDARAN: At least 337 people were killed and 510 injured by the tsunami that smashed into the southern coast of Indonesia's Java island, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
No warnings were reported despite efforts around the region to establish early warning systems after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people, including 170,000 in Indonesia.
But many residents and tourists recognised the signs and fled to higher ground as the sea receded before huge waves came crashing ashore.
Officials said 231 people were confirmed dead and nearly 130 people were missing after Monday's huge waves crashed into Java's southern coast, washing away buildings, wooden cottages and kiosks lining the shoreline facing the Indian Ocean.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll was expected to climb.
"In a tsunami, it is possible that the number (of dead) will increase, especially those who are missing or who have been washed away to sea," he told Elshinta radio.
Kalla said the government's priority was to provide healthcare, food and shelter and then move to evaluating the damage and reconstruction of houses.
Soldiers were trying to retrieve bodies trapped under a collapsed concrete wall.
Metro TV reported several bodies were found in trees along Pangandaran beach near the town of Ciamis, 270 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.
A regional government official in the most hard-hit area said that deaths there totalled 171, while the Indonesian Red Cross said the dead in other areas totalled 60.
There were no reports of casualties or damage in any other country from Monday's tsunami.
POPULAR TOURIST SPOT: Pangandaran, the area that bore the brunt of the tsunami, is a popular tourist spot with many small hotels on the beach. It is close to a nature reserve.
"Yesterday I was on the eastern beach, people were running. I saw how the water rose. It was about 7 to 10 metres," Rizal, a survivor told Elshinta radio as he picked through the debris of his home.
Anxious survivors lifted sheets covering dozens of bodies lining a hospital floor as they searched for relatives missing after the waves battered their homes, leaving the area strewn with bamboo poles, fallen trees and collapsed straw huts.
TV footage showed a man flinging himself down onto the corpse of a small child, her body streaked with mud, alongside lines of bodies under plastic sheets in a makeshift morgue.
The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake''s magnitude was 7.2, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.7. Indonesia's state meteorology and geophysics agency said the quake's strength was 6.8 on the Richter Scale.
Indonesia's 17,000 islands sprawl along a belt of intense volcanic and seismic activity, part of what is called the "Pacific Ring of Fire". Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia.
In May, an earthquake near the city of Yogyakarta in central Java killed more than 5,700.
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