A tsunami struck the shores of the Indonesian city of Palu on Sulawesi island which was hit by earthquakes earlier on Friday. Two earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 6.1 on the Ritcher scale, had struck the Indonesian island.
According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, the quake originated 10km deep, 27km northeast of the central Sulawesi town of Donggala. Reports suggest at least 48 people have died and more than 350 people have been injured. Indonesia's disaster management agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho warned that the death toll may rise. “Many bodies were found along the shoreline because of the tsunami, but the numbers are still unknown,” said Nugroho in a news briefing in Jakarta.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed, and bridges collapsed following the quakes and tsunami waves that were reported to be 'about three metres high'. Unverified video footage doing the rounds of social media show the waters crashing into houses along Palu's shoreline and flooding into a mosque in the city.
The archipelago nation of Indonesia is situated in the Ring of Fire, an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean which is vulnerable to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In December 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off the Sumatra island had triggered devastating tsunami waves in the Indian Ocean, killing over two lakh people in countries including India and Sri Lanka.
