Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said 384 people were killed in the hard-hit city of Palu alone. A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. Nugroho has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu airport’s, though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway was cracked and the control tower damaged. On Aug. 5, a powerful quake on the island of Lombok killed 505 people, most of whom died in collapsing buildings. In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer September 29, 2018 09:22 UTC