The hunt was on Sunday for survivors of a tsunami in Indonesia’s Sunda Strait that struck without warning on the country’s two most-populated islands, killing at least 222 people, injuring more than 800 others and destroying hundred of houses and other buildings.
Publish dateSunday 23 December 2018 - 20:08
Story Code : 176481
It was the second deadly tsunami in Indonesia this year, capping what will be the country’s worst year for disasters in more than a decade, with earthquakes, floods, fires and an airline crash that have killed more than 4,500 people total.
The tsunami struck about 9:30 on Saturday night, when many Indonesians were at the beaches on western Java and southern Sumatra celebrating a long Christmas holiday weekend.
Officials said they suspect that the tsunami — with a wave nearly 10 feet high that hit the coast — had been caused by an undersea landslide that was set off by volcanic activity on the island of Anak Krakatau.
There was no seismic activity in the area, which might have prompted a tsunami evacuation alert and saved lives, they said.
“There was no tsunami warning,” said Rahmat Triyono, earthquake and tsunami chief at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency. “There was no earthquake.”
Officials put the number of injured at 848 and the missing at 28.
A video posted on YouTube showed the tsunami slamming into a temporary stage erected on Tanjung Lesung Beach, on the Java coast, where a rock band was performing.
Source : Afghan Voice Agency(AVA)
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