At least 222 people were killed and hundreds injured when a tsunami hit the coast of Indonesia‘s Sunda Strait on Saturday evening following a volcanic eruption, causing panic among tourists and locals.
Hundreds of buildings were flattened by the wave, which hit the southern coast of Sumatra and the western end of the island of Java around 9.30pm (3.30pm in France). The wave was born after the eruption of the volcano known as the “son” of the legendary Krakatoa, Anak Krakatoa, according to Su topo Puro Nugroho, spokesperson for the national disaster management agency.
According to the latest report, revised upwards, at least 222 people have died, the disaster management agency said. The previous toll was 168 dead, 745 injured and 30 missing.
A wall of water in a concert hall
In the television images we see that the wave has dragged onto the beach of Carita, a popular tourist resort on the west coast of Java, a pile of various waste, including scrap metal roofing and even pieces of wood. Trees have also been uprooted while the ground is covered in debris.
In Carita, Muhammadu Tintant, 15, saw the wave coming that plunged the place into darkness. “We arrived at 9pm for the holiday and suddenly the water came. Everything went black. There was no electricity left, the teenager testified. It’s chaos outside, we still can’t reach the road.”
A terrible amateur video is circulating on social networks. We see a wall of water literally falling onto an outdoor concert. The musicians of the pop group Seventeen are thrown off the stage by the wave which continues its deadly course on the spectators.
In Lampung province, across the strait, Lutfi Al Rasyid, 23, said he fled Kalianda beach for his life. “I couldn’t get the bike to start, so I took off and ran… I prayed and ran as fast as I could.”
Authorities recognize a “mistake”
According to authorities, the tsunami may have been triggered by an anomalous rising tide due to the new Moon, combined with an underwater landslide caused by the eruption of Anak Krakatoa, a small island in the Sunda Strait separating Java and Sumatra.
“The combination [des deux facteurs] it caused a sudden tsunami to hit the coast,” Puro Nugroho said, adding that Indonesia’s geological agency is investigating to find out what exactly happened. The death toll will likely rise further, he warned.
The videos posted on social networks by the spokesperson show panicked residents, armed with flashlights, fleeing to take refuge in the hills.
Indonesian authorities initially declared that the wave was not a tsunami but a rising tide, and urged the population not to panic. “It was a mistake, we’re sorry,” Puro Nugroho later wrote on Twitter.
A 13 minute eruption
Although relatively rare, underwater volcanic eruptions can cause tsunamis, according to the International Tsunamis Information Center.
According to the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Risk Management, Anak Krakatoa had been showing signs of increased activity for a week. An eruption that occurred just before 4pm lasted about 13 minutes, sending a thick plume of ash hundreds of meters into the sky.
Anak (“child” in Indonesian) is a small volcanic island that emerged from the waters half a century after the deadly eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It is one of Indonesia’s 127 active volcanoes.
When Krakatoa exploded in the 19th century, an immense column of smoke, rocks and ash rose 20km into the sky, plunging the region into darkness and triggering a powerful tsunami. About 36,000 people died.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and islets formed by the convergence of three major tectonic plates (Indo-Pacific, Australian, Eurasian), is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic activity.
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