All news

Death toll from Indonesian tsunami rises to 373, Xinhua reports

Earlier reports said 334 people had been killed and 61 were missing

MOSCOW, December 24./TASS/. The death toll in Indonesia’s devastating tsunami has grown to 373 people, and another 1,459 people were injured, Xinhua news agency said on Monday referring to an officer from the National Agency for Disaster Management.

Earlier reports said 334 people had been killed and 61 were missing.

A tsunami struck areas of the Sundra Strait separating the islands of Java and Sumatra on the night of December 22. A spokesman for Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), Sutopo Nugroho, said the death toll has reached 281 and over 1,000 people have been injured. At the moment, 57 people have gone missing. The disaster is believed to have been caused by the eruption of the Anak Krakatau volcano.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo admitted that the country’s agencies had been unable to alert citizens about the tsunami threat. The president set the task to check the equipment and immediately replace non-effective elements of the nationwide tsunami early warning system.