Indonesia needs more equipment, manpower to find tsunami-quake victims

Illustrative image (Source: AFP)

Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s National Disaster and Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on October 1 said more heavy equipment and manpower are needed to find bodies of earthquake and tsunami victims in Central Sulawesi province.

The death toll from the earthquakes and tsunami climbed to 1,203 and the figure is expected to rise, said the Indonesian Government.
Meanwhile, volunteers began to dig mass graves for the bodies of about 1,300 victims in Poboya in Palu city, which had been hardest hit by earthquakes and tsunamis, in an attempt to prevent an outbreak of diseases. 

Three trucks arrived stacked with corpses wrapped in orange, yellow and black bags, the AFP reported.

Sulawesi was ravaged by two quakes measuring 6.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale on September 28. A tsunami happened after the second hit the area in the afternoon of the same day.

The disasters also destroyed many houses and facilities, and forced some 48,000 people to evacuate.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, a big earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 220,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 168,000 in Indonesia.-VNA