Desperate search for survivors
A soldier wearing a face mask treads carefully past a wrecked truck amid a welter of tangled building debris RESCUERS used drones and sniffer dogs yesterday in a harrowing search for trapped survivors of the devastating Indonesian tsunami.
At least 429 people were confirmed dead by yesterday morning and search teams expected the toll to rise as they combed mountains of tangled wreckage.
A further 154 people are known to be still missing in the aftermath of Saturday’s disaster.
But many more are feared to be lost in areas which authorities did not at first realise had been affected.
Thick ash clouds continued to spew from Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island where a crater collapse at high tide triggered chaos. The impact of an area the size of 90 football pitches giving way had sent giant waves smashing into both sides of the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. More than 1,400 people were injured and thousands fled to high ground.
Rescuers brought in heavy machinery, trained dogs and special cameras to detect and dig bodies out of mud and wreckage along a 60-mile stretch of Java’s west coast.
The search was hampered by heavy rain, low visibility and inland roads choked with traffic which were preventing essential aid supplies reaching those who needed them most.
Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the national search and rescue agency, said: “There are several locations that we previously thought were not affected. But now we are reaching more remote areas and in fact there are many victims there.”
The vast archipelago, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, has suffered its worst annual death toll from
‘There will be other victims in areas we never knew were hit’
disasters in more than a decade. Earthquakes flattened parts of the island of Lombok in July and August, and a double quake-tsunami killed more than 2,000 on Sulawesi in September.
It took just 24 minutes after the landslide for waves to strike land and there was no early warning for those living on the coast.
Authorities have since advised residents to stay away from the shoreline amid fears that Anak Krakatau will trigger more tsunamis.
Thousands are staying in tents or in makeshift shelters at mosques and schools. One traumatised survivor, a woman of 29 named only as Enah, said: “We can’t sleep at night. Cars go past with sirens and we’re on edge.” City official Atmadja Suhara said he was helping to care for 4,000 refugees, adding: “Everybody is still in a state of panic but God willing we will rebuild.”
Out at sea, a maritime exclusion zone has been declared around Anak Krakatau, which means Child of Krakatoa.
In 1883 the original volcano erupted in one of the biggest blasts in recorded history, killing more than 36,000.
Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the sea in 1927 and has been growing ever since.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo had told disaster agencies to install early warning systems but experts said little could have been done to save lives.
The disaster evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, which claimed 226,000 lives in Indonesia and 13 other countries.