More Than 160 Killed in Lampung and Banten as Tsunami Strikes Sunda Straits

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - A tsunami struck beaches along Indonesia’s Sunda Straits late Saturday local time. The death toll has risen to 168people with about 745 injured, the country’s disaster agency said Sunday.

The casualties occurred in three regions — South Lampung, Lampung Province in Sumatra and the Serang and Pandeglang regions of Banten Province in Java Island, west of the capital Jakarta — along the Sunda Strait, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNBP), said in a statement.

Hundreds of homes, nine hotels and 10 boats were damaged, BNBP said Sunday.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported an eruption of Krakatoa, a local volcano, about 9 p.m. Saturday local time, and the tsunami struck a short time later, about 9:30 p.m.

The cause of the tsunami was the result of a combination of undersea landslides after the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatoa and the tidal wave caused by the full moon,according to BMKG.

The number of casualties is expected to rise because officials have not been able to contact all the areas affected by the tsunami, the statement said. A highway connecting Serang and Pandeglang had also been damaged.

Disaster agency head Endan Permana told local media that many people were missing in tourist locale of Tanjung Lesung, Banten province, near Jakarta, and that police were providing assistance, as emergency workers had not yet arrived in the area, according to Reuters news agency.

On Sept. 28, a quake and tsunami that hit near the city of Palu, on the island of Sulawesi, killed more than 2,500 and displaced about 70,000.

On Dec. 26, 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. (VOA)