Indonesia Tsunami: Last-Ditch Search for Survivors with Disaster Toll Topping 1,500

Local Editor

Indonesian search teams made desperate last-ditch efforts Friday to find survivors, a week on from the country’s devastating quake-tsunami, as the death toll from the disaster rose above 1,500.

In further details, the city of Palu on Sulawesi Island has been left in ruins after being hit by a 7.5 magnitude quake and a wall of water, which flattened homes, ripped up trees and overturned cars.

Following days of delays, international aid finally started to arrive in the disaster zone, where the UN reported that almost 200,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance.

Survivors ransacked shops and supply trucks in the hunt for basic necessities, prompting security forces to round up dozens of suspected looters and warn that they will fire on thieves.

Authorities previously set a tentative deadline of Friday for finding anyone trapped under ruined buildings, although chances of pulling survivors alive from the rubble at such a late stage are almost zero.

Meanwhile, local military spokesman Muhammad Thohir announced that the death toll had risen to 1,558, up about 100 from the previous official figure.

However, the number would probably hike as over 100 people are still unaccounted for. In parallel, hundreds of bodies have been buried in mass graves in a bid to avert a disease outbreak from corpses rotting in the tropical sun.

Search efforts focused on eight key locations Friday, including a beach and the Balaroa area where the sheer force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team