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Russia ready to help Indonesia create disaster early warning system

A tsunami struck areas of the Sundra Strait separating the islands of Java and Sumatra on December 22

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russia is ready to provide assistance in creating a natural disaster early warning system for Indonesia, where over 280 people have been killed in a devastating tsunami, chief of Russia’ state space corporation Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday.

"We are ready to provide assistance for Jakarta in creating a natural disaster warning system. We have invited Indonesia’s Ambassador to familiarize with the possibilities of Russia’s orbital system of the Earth’s remote sensing," Rogozin wrote on Twitter.

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.