Jakarta:At least 222 dead people were killed and another 800 injured on the islands of Sumatra and Java after a tsunami struck coastal areas around the Sunda Strait on Saturday night.
The tsunami was caused by “an undersea landslide resulting from volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau” and was exacerbated by abnormally high tide because of the current full moon, Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Hundreds of homes were “heavily damaged” and “many are missing”. The deaths bring back memories of December 26, 2004, when an Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.
According to a statement from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), “the tsunami hit several areas of the Sunda Strait, including beaches in Pandeglang regency, Serang, and South Lampung.”