Tsunami hits Indonesian city after huge quake

Death toll unknown as series of temblors continues late into the evening

Atsunami up to two metres high hit a small city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi yesterday after a major 7.5 quake struck offshore, collapsing buildings and washing a vessel ashore, but officials could provide no information on casualties.

The quake hit as dusk fell and communications were down and the airport closed, making it impossible to assess the damage to life and property, officials said. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said communications had been cut in the city of Palu and the nearby fishing town of Donggala.

Officials hoped to be able to gauge the scale of the damage at daybreak after the strongest of a series of earthquakes that continued late into the evening.

More than 600,000 people live in Palu and Donggala.

“The 1.5- to two-metre tsunami has receded,” Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, said. “The situation is chaotic.” ■

AFP A shopping mall was among the buildings that collapsed in Palu, central Sulawesi, after a strong earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the Indonesian island yesterday.