Jakarta, Sept 29 (IBNS) : Indonesian officials said on Saturday that nearly 400 people had been killed in Friday's strong earthquake and a tsunami on the central island of Sulawesi, media reports said quoting officials.
The New York Times quoted Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the Indonesian disaster agency, as saying that 384 people were confirmed dead in the city of Palu, where preparations for a beach festival had been underway when the tsunami hit Friday evening, on the heels of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake.
Sutopo said 540 people were injured and 29 were still missing.
Rescue workers had yet to reach some areas thought to have been affected, and it was feared that the toll could still rise.
Indonesia's leading daily, The Straits Times, however, put the toll at 14, saying 400 people were injured.
It said National emergency response teams have been having difficulty getting to the disaster areas, mainly due to damage to the airport runway.
About 250m of the 2,250m-long runway at the Palu airport was damaged by the quake.
However, AirNav has since installed markers on the 2,000m undamaged stretch of tarmac for aircraft to land with emergency supplies and rescue personnel.
AirNav has dispatched a team of 11 comprising air traffic controlling personnel as well as communication engineers from the Makassar branch office to provide flight navigation services in Palu, Mr Yohanes added.
Commercial flights may only resume on Oct 4, according to the latest flight notification by AirNav on Saturday afternoon.
The earthquake had triggered a tsunami and waves of up to 2m (6.6ft) high swept through Palu on Sulawesi island, not long after authorities had lifted a tsunami warning. .
Several video footage of the tsunami incident went viral on the social media.
People could be seen screaming and fleeing from the spot as the tsunami hit Palu.
As per the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit north of Palu city of the country.
The quake was felt at 5.02 pm local time.
The main earthquake was felt in the areas of Donggala, Palu and Poso, reports said.
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