Authorities say thousands may have died, with emergency services locked in a desperate race against time to rescue dozens of people thought to be trapped in rubble on the island of Sulawesi after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck on Friday, triggering waves up to 19ft (6m) high.
One young woman was pulled alive from the rubble of the Roa Roa hotel in the city of Palu, with hotel owner Ko Jefrey saying up to 60 people were still believed trapped.
A rescuer said: “We’ve got information from people that their relatives are still inside, so we’re focusing on that, especially to find survivors.”
Authorities are bracing themselves for the death toll to spike further as reports filter in from outlying areas, in particular, Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and closer to the epicentre of the quake.
Rescue crews hunt for survivors in the rubble of a Palu hotel flattened in the tsunami (Image: Getty)
Indonesia’s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) said the energy released by Friday’s quake was around 200 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War Two.
Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia’s vice president, fears thousands may have died after the horrifying tsunami devastated the region around Palu.
Another 540 people were injured with aftershocks rocking the island on Saturday, reports of collapsed buildings and a ship washed ashore.
19ft (6m) waves swept through the area on Friday with many victims washed away as they were on the beach as the tsunami hurtled across open sea at speeds of 497mph.
Dozens of people are feared trapped under collapsed buildings after the Indonesia tsunami hit Palu (Image: Getty)
We’ve got information from people that their relatives are still inside, so we’re focusing on that, especially to find survivors
Hundreds of people were preparing for a beach festival when the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency BNPB, said: “When the (tsunami) threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims.
“The tsunami didn’t come by itself, it dragged cars, logs, houses, it hit everything on land.”
Mr Nugroho said casualties and devastation could be even greater along the coastline 300 km (190 miles) north of Palu, an area called Donggala, which is closer to the epicentre of the quake.
A Red Cross spokesman said: “We’re now getting limited communications about the destruction in Palu city, but we have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying. There are more than 300,000 people living there.
“This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse.”
Dozens of injured people are being treated at makeshift hospitals.
Video footage shows a man on the upper floor of a building shouting warnings of the approaching tsunami to people on the street below moments before the wave crashed ashore.
Palu Airport air traffic controller Anthonius Gunawan Agung, 21, has been hailed a hero after staying at his post to safely land a plane in to land on Friday night before he died in the tsunami.
Head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Willem Rampangilei, told reporters in Sulawesi that rescuers were struggling in their hunt to find for more victims.
“We are having difficulty deploying heavy equipment … because many of the roads leading to Palu city are damaged,” he said.
About 10,000 displaced people were scattered at 50 different places in Palu, he added.
Residents try to salvage belongings after the Indonesia tsunami devastated their homes (Image: GEtty)
Shocking footage broadcast by local media captured the moment the wave smashed into houses along the city’s shoreline.
Terrified residents fled inland as the tsunami swept through the streets of Palu, which is home to around 330,000 people.
Dwikorita Karnawati, who heads Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, said: “The 1.5- to two-metre tsunami has receded.
“It ended. The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore.”A bridge was also washed away and the main highway to Palu cut due to a landslide.
Indonesia’s meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but lifted it 34 minutes later.
The agency has been criticised for not warning the a tsunami had hit Palu on Saturday, with officials claiming the waves arrived within the time the warning was issued.
Authorities have urged people in the affected area to remain alert as a number of moderate aftershocks hit.
The earthquake and tsunami have caused havoc with communications on the island as rescue agencies based in the capital Jakarta attempt to coordinate with local authorities.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire is regularly hit by earthquakes.
In August, a series of major quakes killed over 500 people in the tourist island of Lombok and destroyed dozens of villages along its northern coast with Palu hit by tsunami in 1927 and 1968, according to BNPB.