Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dramatic video shows buildings being knocked down

More than 380 people have been confirmed dead after a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit an Indonesian city on Friday.

Waves up to 3m (10ft) high swept through Palu on Sulawesi island.

Video on social media shows people screaming and fleeing in panic and a mosque among the buildings damaged.

Strong aftershocks rocked the city on Saturday. Thousands of homes have collapsed, along with hospitals, hotels and a shopping centre.

Rescue efforts are under way, though hampered by a major power cut. The main road to Palu has been blocked due to a landslide, and a key bridge is out of action.

'Many bodies along the shoreline'

Indonesia's disaster agency said at least 384 people had been killed, but the number is expected to rise. At least 540 have been injured, and 29 are listed as missing.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Locals check bodybags in the streets of Palu as they search for lost relatives

"Many bodies were found along the shoreline because of the tsunami, but the numbers are still unknown," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the agency, told Reuters.

"When the threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims," he told a news briefing.

"The tsunami didn't come by itself - it dragged cars, logs, houses - it hit everything on land."

Some survived by climbing 6m (18ft) trees to escape the huge waves, the spokesman said.

Image copyright Antara Foto/Rolex Malaha via Reuters Image caption Homes, hotels, and shopping centres have collapsed in the "extensive" damage, officials said

A less powerful quake earlier on Friday had killed at least one person and injured at least 10 in the smaller fishing town of Donggala.

In Palu, hundreds of people had been preparing for a beach festival that was due to start on Friday night.

The city's main hospital was damaged in the quake, and TV footage showed dozens of injured people being treated outside in makeshift medical tents.

Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Medical teams are treating patients in the open air

Image copyright AFP Image caption At least 384 people have been killed in the quake

Palu and Donggala are home to more than 600,000 people. President Joko Widodo said troops were en route to the area to reinforce rescue teams and help retrieve bodies.

The main airport in Palu has been closed since the tsunami hit. A minister said the runway had been damaged but that it was hoped helicopters would still be able to land.

The country's military is sending cargo planes of relief aid from the capital, Jakarta.

Officials are urging locals not to enter their homes and to sleep away from buildings, due to the risk of aftershocks.

Image copyright Antara Foto/Reuters Image caption Relief aid is packed into a military plane bound for Palu

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Indonesia's disaster agency said some people scaled trees to escape the huge waves

The earthquake hit just off central Sulawesi at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles) just before 18:00 on Friday (10:00 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

A tsunami warning was issued, but lifted within the hour. Indonesia's meteorological agency has been criticised for its response, but officials said the waves struck while the warning was in place.

Dramatic video of the tsunami hitting Palu shows the high waves sweeping away several buildings and then the large tilted mosque in the town, about 80km from the quake's epicentre.

"The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore," said Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency.

A 2004 tsunami triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra killed 226,000 across the Indian Ocean, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because it lies on the Ring of Fire - the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire Pacific rim.

More than half of the world's active volcanoes above sea level are part of the ring.

Just last month, a series of deadly earthquakes struck the Indonesian island of Lombok. The biggest, on 5 August, killed more than 460 people. </s> The death toll from the earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi jumped to 384 on Saturday, authorities said, with many of those killed swept away by giant waves as they played on the beach.Strong aftershocks continued to rock the coastal city on Saturday morning after waves up to six metres (18 feet) high swept through the scenic tourist town on Friday, triggered by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on land."When the (tsunami) threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of Indonesia 's disaster mitigation agency BNPB said in news briefing in Jakarta.Hundreds of people were preparing for a beach festival to celebrate Palu's anniversary. The festival was due to start Friday night.Some people climbed six metre (18 feet) trees to escape the tsunami and survived, Nugroho said.Photos confirmed by authorities showed bodies being lined up along the street on Saturday, some in bags and some with their faces covered with clothes.Amateur footage shown by local TV stations, which could not immediately be authenticated by Reuters, showed waters crashing into houses along Palu's shoreline, scattering shipping containers and flooding into a mosque in the city.Nugroho described the damage as "extensive" with thousands of houses, hospitals, shopping malls and hotels collapsed, a bridge washed away and the main highway to Palu cut due to a landslide.Bodies of some victims were found trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, he said, adding 540 people were injured. Dozens of injured people were being treated in makeshift medical tents set up outdoors, TV images showed.Indonesia's meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but lifted it 34 minutes later. The agency has been widely criticised for not informing a tsunami had hit Palu on Saturday, though officials said waves had come within the time the warning was issued.The quake and tsunami caused a major power outage that cut communications around Palu and on Saturday authorities were still having difficulties coordinating rescue efforts.The disaster mitigation agency has not been able to get any information from the fishing town of Donggala, closer to the epicentre of the quake 27 km (16 miles) away. More than 600,000 people live in Donggala and Palu.Chief security minister Wiranto told TVOne the military had started sending in cargo planes from the capital Jakarta carrying relief aid.The city's airport remained closed after its runway and air traffic control tower was damaged in the quake but officials said they were preparing to reopen to allow aid to come in.Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said no command centre for disaster recovery has been created yet.The Palu area was hit by a less powerful quake earlier on Friday, which destroyed some houses, killed one person and injured at least 10 in Donggala, authorities said.The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the second quake at a strong 7.5, after first saying it was 7.7.Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In August, a series of major quakes killed over 500 people in the tourist island of Lombok and destroyed dozens of villages along its northern coast.Palu was hit by tsunami in 1927 and 1968, according to BNPB. </s> Residents too afraid to sleep indoors camped out in the darkness Saturday while victims recounted harrowing stories of being separated from their loved ones a day after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that unleashed waves as high as 6 meters (20 feet), killing hundreds on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

The official death toll stood at 384, with all of the fatalities coming in the hard-hit city of Palu, but it was expected to rise once rescuers reached surrounding coastal areas, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. He said others were unaccounted for, without giving an estimate. The nearby cities of Donggala and Mamuju were also ravaged, but little information was available due to damaged roads and disrupted telecommunications.

Nugroho said "tens to hundreds" of people were taking part in a beach festival in Palu when the tsunami struck at dusk on Friday. Their fate was unknown.

Hundreds of people were injured and hospitals, damaged by the magnitude 7.5 quake, were overwhelmed.

Some of the injured, including Dwi Haris, who suffered a broken back and shoulder, rested outside Palu's Army Hospital, where patients were being treated outdoors due to continuing strong aftershocks. Tears filled his eyes as he recounted feeling the violent earthquake shake the fifth floor hotel room he shared with his wife and daughter.

"There was no time to save ourselves. I was squeezed into the ruins of the wall, I think," said Haris, adding that the family was in town for a wedding. "I heard my wife cry for help, but then silence. I don't know what happened to her and my child. I hope they are safe."

It's the latest natural disaster to hit Indonesia, which is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Last month, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people.

Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from the earthquake and tsunami. A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge with yellow arches had collapsed. Bodies lay partially covered by tarpaulins and a man carried a dead child through the wreckage.

The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.

Indonesian TV showed dramatic smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting Palu, with people screaming and running in fear. The water smashed into buildings and the mosque.

Nina, a 23-year-old woman who goes by one name, was working at a laundry service shop not far from the beach when the quake hit. She said the quake destroyed her workplace, but she managed to escape and quickly went home to get her mother and younger brother.

"We tried to find shelter, but then I heard people shouting, 'Water! Water!'" she recalled, crying. "The three of us ran, but got separated. Now I don't know where my mother and brother are. I don't know how to get information. I don't know what to do."

The earthquake left mangled buildings with collapsed awnings and rebar sticking out of concrete like antennae. Roads were buckled and cracked. The tsunami created even more destruction. It was reported as being 3 meters (10 feet) high in some areas and double that height elsewhere.

"We got a report over the phone saying that there was a guy who climbed a tree up to 6 meters high," said Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman.

Communications with the area were difficult because power and telecommunications were cut, hampering search and rescue efforts. Most people slept outdoors, fearing strong aftershocks.

"We hope there will be international satellites crossing over Indonesia that can capture images and provide them to us so we can use the images to prepare humanitarian aid," Nugroho said.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that's home to 260 million people. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas, making access difficult in the best of conditions.

The disaster agency has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu's airport, though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway was cracked and the control tower damaged.

AirNav said one of its air traffic controllers, aged 21, died in the quake after staying in the tower to ensure a flight he'd just cleared for departure got airborne safely. It did.

More than half of the 560 inmates in a Palu prison fled after its walls collapsed during the quake, said its warden, Adhi Yan Ricoh.

"It was very hard for the security guards to stop the inmates from running away as they were so panicked and had to save themselves too," he told state news agency Antara.

Ricoh said there was no immediate plan to search for the inmates because the prison staff and police were consumed with the search and rescue effort.

"Don't even think to find the inmates. We don't even have time yet to report this incident to our superiors," he said.

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Friday night that he instructed the security minister to coordinate the government's response to the disaster.

Jokowi also told reporters in his hometown of Solo that he called on the country's military chief to help with search and rescue efforts.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said U.N. officials were in contact with Indonesian authorities and "stand ready to provide support as required."

Sulawesi has a history of religious tensions between Muslims and Christians, with violent riots erupting in the town of Poso, not far from Palu, two decades ago. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> PALU, Indonesia — Residents too afraid to sleep indoors camped out in the darkness Saturday while victims recounted harrowing stories of being separated from their loved ones a day after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that unleashed waves as high as 6 meters (20 feet), killing hundreds on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

The official death toll stood at 384, with all the fatalities coming in the hard-hit city of Palu, but it was expected to rise once rescuers reached surrounding coastal areas, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. He said others were unaccounted for, without giving an estimate. The nearby cities of Donggala and Mamuju were also ravaged, but little information was available due to damaged roads and disrupted telecommunications.

Nugroho said "tens to hundreds" of people were taking part in a beach festival in Palu when the tsunami struck at dusk on Friday. Their fate was unknown.

Hundreds of people were injured and hospitals, damaged by the magnitude 7.5 quake, were overwhelmed.

Some of the injured, including Dwi Haris, who suffered a broken back and shoulder, rested outside Palu's Army Hospital, where patients were being treated outdoors due to continuing strong aftershocks. Tears filled his eyes as he recounted feeling the violent earthquake shake the fifth-floor hotel room he shared with his wife and daughter.

"There was no time to save ourselves. I was squeezed into the ruins of the wall, I think," said Haris, adding that the family was in town for a wedding. "I heard my wife cry for help, but then silence. I don't know what happened to her and my child. I hope they are safe."

It's the latest natural disaster to hit Indonesia, which is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries. Last month, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people.

Residents gather to look at a collapsed building after an earthquake and tsunami hit Palu on Sulawesi island on September 29, 2018.

Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from the earthquake and tsunami. A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge with yellow arches had collapsed. Bodies lay partially covered by tarpaulins and a man carried a dead child through the wreckage.

The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.

Indonesian TV showed dramatic smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting Palu, with people screaming and running in fear. The water smashed into buildings and the mosque.

Nina, a 23-year-old woman who goes by one name, was working at a laundry service shop not far from the beach when the quake hit. She said the quake destroyed her workplace, but she managed to escape and quickly went home to get her mother and younger brother.

"We tried to find shelter, but then I heard people shouting, 'Water! Water!'" she recalled, crying. "The three of us ran, but got separated. Now I don't know where my mother and brother are. I don't know how to get information. I don't know what to do."

The earthquake left mangled buildings with collapsed awnings and rebar sticking out of concrete like antennae. Roads were buckled and cracked. The tsunami created even more destruction. It was reported as being 3 meters (10 feet) high in some areas and double that height elsewhere.

"We got a report over the phone saying that there was a guy who climbed a tree up to 6 meters high," said Nugroho, the disaster agency spokesman.

Communications with the area were difficult because power and telecommunications were cut, hampering search and rescue efforts. Most people slept outdoors, fearing strong aftershocks.

"We hope there will be international satellites crossing over Indonesia that can capture images and provide them to us so we can use the images to prepare humanitarian aid," Nugroho said.

Indonesia is a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that's home to 260 million people. Roads and infrastructure are poor in many areas, making access difficult in the best of conditions.

The disaster agency has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu's airport, though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway was cracked and the control tower damaged.

AirNav said one of its air traffic controllers, aged 21, died in the quake after staying in the tower to ensure a flight he'd just cleared for departure got airborne safely. It did.

More than half of the 560 inmates in a Palu prison fled after its walls collapsed during the quake, said its warden, Adhi Yan Ricoh.

"It was very hard for the security guards to stop the inmates from running away as they were so panicked and had to save themselves too," he told state news agency Antara.

Ricoh said there was no immediate plan to search for the inmates because the prison staff and police were consumed with the search and rescue effort.

"Don't even think to find the inmates. We don't even have time yet to report this incident to our superiors," he said.

Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Friday night that he instructed the security minister to coordinate the government's response to the disaster.

Jokowi also told reporters in his hometown of Solo that he called on the country's military chief to help with search and rescue efforts.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said U.N. officials were in contact with Indonesian authorities and "stand ready to provide support as required."

Sulawesi has a history of religious tensions between Muslims and Christians, with violent riots erupting in the town of Poso, not far from Palu, two decades ago. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

Associated Press writers Margie Mason and Stephen Wright contributed to this report from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities on Saturday raised the death toll in the devastating earthquake and an ensuing tsunami in Sulawesi Island to 1,649.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that among the victims, 1,413 were from Palu city, the hardest-hit in twin disasters, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Most of the victims were found in Palu and they were hit by tsunami, particularly in the coastal areas near Talise beach," the spokesman said.

The remaining deaths were reported in the districts of Donggala, Sigi, Parigi Moutong and Pasang Kayu. Relief aid started arriving in the more remote areas of Sulawesi Island.

Assistance was being provided by local authorities and non-governmental organisations in Donggala and other cut off areas such as Sigi, Red Cross spokesperson Iris Van Deinse said. Work on restoring the power supply to affected areas was ongoing.

The quakes and the tsunami also left 2,549 people injured, with 265 people still missing. The number of people taking shelter in makeshift tents stand at 62,369 now, the spokesperson said.

In Palu, banks and businesses reopened and the chaos surrounding the distribution of food, water and gasoline during the initial aftermath of the tragedy, had ended.

Bodies were still being removed from the other worst affected areas, such as the village of Petobo -- about 7 km southeast of Palu -- and Balaroa, where NGO workers estimated that over 1,000 people could still be buried. </s> Deadly 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia, triggered a tsunami in Palu last week. The death toll has risen to 800, officials have warned of numbers increasing.Indonesia is preparing a mass grave to bury its dead in the aftermath of earthquake. The government has declared a 14-day state of emergency in Sulawesi Island. </s> An injured man is brought to the hospital as one woman cries after learning about her daughter's death in a massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. Nearly a week after a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a deadly tsunami on Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi, countless people have yet to find their loved ones _ both survivors and the dead. As of Thursday, the official death toll was 1,424, with 113 people missing. Many families, though, never registered their losses with police, and others have failed to identify them before they were buried anonymously in mass graves.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila) (AP) </s> Four days after an earthquake and tsunami struck Indonesia, more than 1,200 are confirmed dead and nearly 800 are badly injured, according to national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Palu, population 380,000, is the biggest affected city in the region and has been heavily damaged, as seen in photos from DigitalGlobe, a satellite imaging company. Images also show neighboring communities, where many remain trapped, have been swamped by mud and waters.

epa07063067 Debris litters a street at a tsunami affected area in Wani, Donggala, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, 02 October 2018. According to reports, at least 1,234 people have died after a series of powerful earthquakes hit Central Sulawesi on 28 September 2018 and triggered a tsunami.

TOPSHOT - A survivor walks under a car struck on a building in Palu, Indonesia's Central Sulawesi on October 1, 2018, after an earthquake and tsunami hit the area on September 28. - Indonesian volunteers began burying bodies in a mass grave with space for more than a thousand people on October 1, victims of a quake-tsunami that devastated swathes of Sulawesi and left authorities struggling to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster.

Rescuers carry an earthquake survivor from a building damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018.

Rescuers try to rescue Nurul Istikharah, 15, from her damaged house following earthquakes and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Sept. 30, 2018.

Medical team members help patients outside a hospital after an earthquake and a tsunami hit Palu, on Sulawesi island. </s> Aftershocks continued to rock the coastal city of Palu in Indonesia's central Sulawesi province on Saturday (September 29) following Friday's massive earthquake which triggered the tsunami.

Drone footage shared on social media showed collapsed buildings, flooding and debris on the streets.

More than 400 people were confirmed killed, many swept away as tsunami waves as they played on the beach in Palu, when the 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the island of Sulawesi, authorities said on Saturday.

An Indonesian official says the earthquake and tsunami that hit central Sulawesi left many victims, as rescuers raced to the region.

The latest death toll stands at 384, with hundreds more injured.

The figure is from the hard-hit city of Palu alone, where hundreds of people are injured and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed.

The tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, smashed into two cities and several settlements on Sulawesi island at dusk Friday.
More than 408 people are confirmed dead and at least 540 injured after a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake which hit Palu and Donggala, Indonesia, on Friday.