Indonesia quake, tsunami toll climbs to 2,045

The death toll from the 7.5-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Indonesia's Sulawesi Island last month has risen to 2,045, authorities said on Wednesday.

Nearly 5,000 people were estimated to be missing.

The National Agency for Disaster Management said in a press conference that 1,636 were killed in Palu, the worst hit in twin disasters, 222 in Sigi, 171 in Donggala, 15 in Parigi Moutong and one in Pasangkayu, Efe news reported.

The families of the victims buried 1,076 bodies while the authorities interred the remaining 969.

The latest data said that 10,679 were injured, out of which 2,549 were seriously hurt. About 82,775 were placed in over 100 shelter camps.

The authorities estimated that over 5,000 people could have been buried under the mud in Balaroa and Petobo.

The Sulawesi quake and tsunami were the worst to have struck the country since the 2004 tsunami that hit Aceh, in the west of the archipelago, leaving 167,000 people dead.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic and volcanic activity which experiences around 7,000 tremors every year, most of them moderate.

--IANS

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