Illustrative image (Source: AFP) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s National Disaster and Mitigation Agency (BNPB) on October 1said more heavy equipment and manpower are needed to find bodies of earthquakeand tsunami victims in Central Sulawesi province.
Thedeath toll from the earthquakes and tsunami climbed to 1,203 and the figure isexpected to rise, said the Indonesian Government.
Meanwhile,volunteers began to dig mass graves for the bodies of about 1,300 victims inPoboya in Palu city, which had been hardest hit by earthquakesand tsunamis, in an attempt to prevent an outbreak of diseases.
Threetrucks arrived stacked with corpses wrapped in orange, yellow and black bags,the AFP reported.
Sulawesiwas ravaged by two quakes measuring 6.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale onSeptember 28. A tsunami happened after the second hit the area in the afternoonof the same day.
Thedisasters also destroyed many houses and facilities, and forced some 48,000people to evacuate.
Indonesiasits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004,a big earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered atsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 220,000 people in 13 countries,including more than 168,000 in Indonesia.-VNA
