"The combination caused a sudden tsunami that hit the coast," Nugroho said, but added that Indonesia's geological agency was working to ascertain exactly how it happened. Indonesian authorities initially claimed the wave was not a tsunami, but instead a tidal surge and urged the public not to panic. Anak Krakatoa is a small volcanic island that emerged from the ocean half a century after Krakatoa's deadly 1883 eruption. Most recently in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island a quake and tsunami killed thousands of people. In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

Source: The Nation Bangkok December 23, 2018 00:28 UTC