Carita, Indonesia: A tsunami following a volcanic eruption killed at least168 people when it slammed without warning into popular beaches aroundIndonesia’s Sunda Strait on Saturday night, cutting a swathe of destructionand triggering mass panic as it swept inland.
Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit the coast ofsouthern Sumatra and the western tip of Java about 9:30 pm (1430 GMT)following the eruption of a volcano known as the “child” of the legendaryKrakatoa, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Search and rescue teams were scouring rubble for survivors, with 168confirmed dead, 745 people injured and 30 reported missing across threeregions, he said.
Dramatic video posted on social media showed a wall of water suddenlycrashing into an open-air concert by pop group “Seventeen” — hurling bandmembers off the stage and then flooding into the audience.
In a tearful Instagram post, frontman Riefian Fajarsyah said the band’sbassist and road manager had been killed.
Images of the aftermath of the tsunami in coastal areas show a trail ofuprooted trees and debris strewn across beaches. A tangled mess ofcorrugated steel roofing, timber and rubble was dragged inland at Caritabeach, a popular day-tripping spot on the west coast of Java.
Muhammad Bintang, who was at Carita beach when the wave hit, described asudden surge of water that plunged the tourist spot into darkness.
“We arrived at 9pm for our holiday and suddenly the water came — it wentdark, the electricity is off,” the 15-year-old told AFP.
“It’s messy outside and we still cannot access the road.”
In Lampung province, on the other side of the strait, Lutfi Al Rasyid saidhe fled the beach in Kalianda city in fear for his life.
“I could not start my motorbike so I left it and I ran… I just prayed andran as far as I could,” the 23-year-old told AFP.
– Initial error –
Authorities say the tsunami may have been triggered by an abnormal tidalsurge due to a new moon and an underwater landslide following the eruptionof Anak Krakatoa, which forms a small island in the Sunda Strait betweenJava and Sumatra.
“The combination caused a sudden tsunami that hit the coast,” Nugroho said,but added that Indonesia’s geological agency was working to ascertainexactly how it happened.
He added that the death toll would likely increase.
Video footage posted to social media by Nugroho showed panicked residentsclutching flashlights and fleeing for higher ground.
Indonesian authorities initially claimed the wave was not a tsunami, butinstead a tidal surge and urged the public not to panic.
Nugroho later apologised for the mistake on Twitter, saying because therewas no earthquake it had been difficult to ascertain the cause of theincident early on.
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“If there is an initial error we’re sorry,” he wrote.
The wave swamped parts of the coast around the Sunda Strait, but was mostdamaging in Pandeglang district, on Java’s western tip, where at least 33people died and 491 people were injured.
Three people died further north in Serang, while seven were killed in SouthLampung, on Sumatra island.
Heavy equipment was being transported to badly-hit areas to help search forvictims, Nugroho said, adding evacuation posts and public kitchens werebeing set up for evacuees.
Abu Salim, a member of the Tagana disaster volunteer group, said he helpedevacuate victims in Banten province.
“We evacuated the victims who died and were injured, we took them to healthclinics … Most of them suffered from broken bones,” he said, adding hefeared more were missing.
Although relatively rare, submarine volcanic eruptions can cause tsunamisdue to the sudden displacement of water or slope failure, according to theInternational Tsunami Information Centre.
Anak Krakatoa is a small volcanic island that emerged from the ocean half acentury after Krakatoa’s deadly 1883 eruption which killed more than 36,000people.
According to Indonesia’s geological agency, Anak Krakatoa had been showingsigns of heightened activity for days, spewing plumes of ash thousands ofmetres into the air.
The volcano erupted again just after 9:00 pm on Saturday, the agency said.
An eruption just before 4:00 pm on Saturday lasted around 13 minutes andsent plumes of ash soaring hundreds of metres into the sky.
Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles theso-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and a largeportion of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
Most recently in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island a quake and tsunami inSeptember killed thousands of people.
On December 26, 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 underseaearthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
Anak Krakatoa is one of 127 active volcanoes which run the length of thearchipelago. – APP / AFP
