Quake survivors clamour to flee hard-hit Indonesian city
PALU, Indonesia — As officials began burying hundreds of dead in a mass grave Monday, thousands of survivors of a devastating earthquake and tsunami converged on the airport of this heavily damaged Indonesian city and clamoured to leave, saying there was little to eat and their homes were unsafe.
The confirmed death toll of 844, mostly from the city of Palu, is expected to rise as authorities reach areas that were cut off by the disaster. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck at dusk Friday and generated a tsunami said to have been as high as 6 metres (20 feet) in places.
Search-and-rescue teams combed destroyed homes and buildings, including a collapsed eight-story hotel, for any trapped survivors, but they needed more heavy equipment to clear the rubble.
Many people were believed trapped under shattered houses in Palu’s Balaroa neighbourhood, where the earthquake caused the ground to heave up and down violently, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.