PALU, Indonesia, Sept 29, 2018 (News Wires) - A tsunami that hit two central Indonesian cities swept away buildings and at least several hundred people, dumping victims caught in its relentless path across a devastated landscape that rescuers were struggling to reach Saturday, hindered by damaged roads and broken communications. Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 384 people were killed in the hard-hit city of Palu alone. The nearby city of Donggala and the town of Mamuju were also severely affected by the 3-meter (10-foot) -high tsunami but have not yet been reached by aid due to damaged roads and disrupted telecommunications. Nugroho said "tens to hundreds" of people were taking part in a beach festival in Palu when the tsunami, which was triggered by a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, struck at dusk on Friday. Their fate was unknown. Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. A large bridge with yellow arches had collapsed. Bodies lay partially covered by tarpaulins and a man carried a dead child through the wreckage. The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.
