Residents flee amid new tsunami rumor
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia — Rumors of another killer wave sparked mass panic today in the town hardest hit by the Indonesian tsunami, and amateur video that captured some of the horror of the disaster surfaced. The death toll rose to 531, with more than 270 missing.
The video shows children playing in the surf and building sandcastles followed by brief footage of a wall of black water bearing down on the beach in Pangandaran. The camera person then runs away amid screams.
The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake and smashed into a 110-mile stretch of Java island's coastline, which was unaffected by the devastating 2004 Asian tsunami.
The waves, more than 6 feet high, reached 200 yards inland in some places, destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats were left mangled in fishing nets, furniture and other debris.
It was unclear how today's rumor of another tsunami spread, but it caused mass panic among the town's traumatized residents. More than 1,000 people ran from the beach area or jumped on bikes or in cars and headed inland amid shouts of "The water is coming!"
"People suddenly started running so I joined them," said Marino, a 42-year-old man who was caught up in the exodus.
Meanwhile, a strong earthquake today caused tall buildings to sway in the Indonesian capital, sending panicked residents fleeing into the streets, but no damage or injuries were reported.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 and was centered 24 miles beneath the Sunda straits — about 120 miles southwest of Jakarta, said Budi Waluyo, an official at Indonesia's meteorological office. Suharjono, head of the earthquake division at Jakarta's meteorological agency, told Metro TV that the temblor was not strong enough to trigger a tsunami, but he urged people to be on guard.
Police and army teams with sniffer dogs and mechanical equipment kept searching for survivors of the tsunami, but found only bodies amid the ruins, pushing the death toll to 531, said Maman Susanto, from the government's national disaster coordinating board. Several foreign tourists were among the dead.
He said 275 people were listed as missing.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings of a possible tsunami about 15 minutes after Monday's quake. The tsunami struck Java about 45 minutes later — before authorities had time to warn anyone on the coast.
Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen Indian Ocean nations — with more than half the deaths occurring in Sumatra island's Aceh province.
