The official death toll from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated part of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday reached 832 and was expected to keep rising as rescuers struggled to reach outlying communities, Indonesia's disaster agency said on Sunday.
The magnitude-7.5 earthquake hit Friday evening and spawned the deadly tsunami, with waves reaching as high as 20 feet. Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of two hotels and a mall in the city of Palu on the island.
Indonesian disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a news conference Sunday a mass burial would be held in the city for health reasons.
He also said the agency needs more heavy equipment to move broken concrete.
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll could rise into the thousands.
He also said 61 foreigners were in Palu at the time of the disaster, and most have been accounted for. But one South Korean is believed to be trapped in the ruins of the Roa-Roa Hotel, where some 50 others are believed to be trapped under rubble. Three visitors from France and one from Malaysia are missing. The survivors will be evacuated to the city of Makassar on the island.
With most of the confirmed deaths from Palu, authorities are bracing for much worse as reports filter in from outlying areas, in particular, Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and closer to the epicenter of the quake, and two other districts.
"We haven't received reports from the three other areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don't know for sure what is the impact," Nugroho said."There are many areas where the search and rescue teams haven't been able to reach."
