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Death toll in Indonesian tsunami soars to 168

Nearly 745 others were injured

© EPA-EFE/BANTEN POLICE HEADQUARTERS

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. At least 168 people were killed and nearly 745 others were injured after a tsunami struck Indonesia overnight to Sunday, the Detik news portal reported citing local authorities.

Earlier reports said 62 people died and 584 others were injured.

Some 30 people went missing, according to the report. Nearly 430 houses have been seriously damaged.

Indonesia’s authorities admitted that the early warning system to predict a tsunami, which is usually caused by a volcano eruption, was not in place. "The tools of early warning, which we currently have, are mainly related to tectonic phenomena rather than volcanic ones," Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquakes and tsunami center at Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency, said, according to the Detik news portal.

Earlier, the agency declared the threat of high waves in the Sundra Strait. This warning is in place until December 25.

A tsunami struck areas of the Sundra Strait separating the islands of Java and Sumatra. A spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster agency said the tsunami might have been caused by the recent Krakatoa eruption.

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