Indonesia earthquake kills more than 300 people as quake triggers 20-foot-high tsunami waves

Indonesia earthquake kills more than 300 people as quake triggers 20-foot-high tsunami waves
More than 300 people have been killed after a tsunami - triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake - slammed into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.



 It is the latest devastating quake to hit the Southeast Asian nation in recent months. The popular tourist destination of Lombok has been among the worst-affected islands.
PALU, Indonesia A tsunami swept away buildings and killed at least several hundred people on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, dumping victims caught in its relentless path across a devastated landscape that rescuers were struggling to reach Saturday, hindered by damaged roads and broken communications. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 384 people were killed in the hard-hit city of Palu alone.
The nearby city of Donggala and the town of Mamuju were also ravaged by the tsunami but have not yet been reached by aid 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, which was triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, struck at dusk on Friday. Their fate was unknown.
In some places, the water rose as high as 20 feet. "We got a report over the phone saying that there was a guy who climbed a tree up to 6 meters high," Nugroho said.
Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. 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.
Indonesia is frequently hit 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. On Aug. 5, a powerful quake on the Indonesian island of Lombok killed 505 people, most of whom died in collapsing buildings.