By Mahmut Atanur

JAKARTA (AA): The death toll from Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has risen to 832, the national disaster agency said on Sunday.

The tsunami, towering up to three meters high, hit Palu, capital of the Central Sulawesi province, and the northeast of the nearby Donggala Regency.

A total of 821 of the deaths were confirmed in Palu, while the other 11 victims are from the city of Donggala, National Disaster Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told reporters.

Rescuers were struggling in their search for more victims as many of the roads leading to Palu are damaged, Willem Rampangilei, head of the agency, was quoted by the country’s national newspaper Kompas as saying on Saturday.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo was scheduled to visit affected areas of the city on Sunday.

Hundreds were badly injured and at least 17,000 people were left homeless.

The Red Cross said that more than 1.6 million people have been affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

“This is already a tragedy, but it could get much worse,” the Red Cross said in a statement.

On Saturday, Indonesia declared a state of emergency for the island.

After its 500-meter airstrip was damaged, Palu’s airport was closed to flights, excepting certain cargo planes.

Over the last two months three more earthquakes with magnitudes 6.3, 6.9, and 7 hit the eastern island of Lombok, killing a total of 563 people.

Indonesia lies within the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide and cause frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck the eastern coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed around 230,000 people as it tore along the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Additional report by The Muslim News

[Archive Photo: Tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia in 2004. Photograph: Flickr/Creative Commons]