Clamour for help grows with rescue teams still struggling to reach badly hit areas, as Soputan Volcano in northern Sulawesi erupts

Hopes have dimmed of finding people alive in the wreckage from the earthquake and tsunami that struck Palu in Indonesia with rescue teams struggling to reach some of the worst hit areas.

The death toll rose to almost 1,400 on Wednesday with hundreds of people unaccounted for.

'Now it’s too late': anger over Palu's long wait for tsunami aid Read more

“The death toll is now 1,374 [and] 113 missing,” said Willem Rampangilei, head of Indonesia’s national disaster agency. “And there are still a few bodies trapped under the rubble. We don’t know how many. Our priority is still to find and save people.”

To add to the woes of Sulawesi island, on Wednesday morning the Soputan Volcano in northern Sulawesi erupted, spewing volcanic ash up to 4,000 metres into the air.

No casualties have been reported and authorities rushed to point out that footage going viral online, showing rivers of red lava consuming houses purported to be from the Soputan crater, was a hoax.

“It could be that this earthquake triggered the eruption, but the direct correlation has yet to be seen as there had been an increase in the Mount Soputan activity,” Kasbani, an Indonesian volcanologist who uses only one name, told online news site Tempo.

Rescue teams focused their efforts on destroyed buildings in Palu city, such as the Roa Roa hotel, where 30 people were still thought to be buried.

Play Video 0:32 Volcano erupts on tsunami-hit island in Indonesia – video

Around 6,400 personnel from the military, the police, national search and rescue agency and the energy and mineral resources department were deployed to the area to assist in aid and rescue efforts and maintain security. Tensions continued to mount in Palu on Wednesday at the lack of clean water and food supplies, with desperate residents ransacking shops for supplies. Police said they had begun making arrests of those caught stealing.

On Tuesday six trucks laden with supplies were reportedly looted en route to Palu. However President Joko Widodo insisted that Indonesian authorities were in full control. “There is no such thing as looting,” he said during a visit to Palu.

The trickle of aid to harder to reach areas outside of the city of Palu remained particularly slow, frustrating communities who felt they had been ignored or abandoned. Jens Laerke, from the UN’s humanitarian office, said: “There are still large areas of what might be the worst-affected areas that haven’t been properly reached, but the teams are pushing, they are doing what they can.”

What caused the Indonesia tsunami and could lives have been saved? Read more

The United Nations humanitarian agency, UNOCHA, said on Monday that 191,000 people were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Indonesia has agreed to accept foreign aid for the disaster but the government told foreign rescue teams to “stand down”, insisting they had the disaster under control. The airport remained closed to foreign airlines wishing to transport aid into the area and the vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, said the government had rejected the offer of a hospital ship from the US government.

But those on the ground described scenes of hospitals being overwhelmed, people queueing for petrol for 24 hours and devastated areas the village of Wani in Donggala province remaining without help five days after the earthquake hit.

“Twelve people in this area haven’t yet been found,” said Wani resident Mohammad Thahir Talib.

“In the area to the south, because there hasn’t been an evacuation we don’t know if there are bodies. It’s possible there are more,” he said.

“We feel like we are stepchildren here because all the help is going to Palu,” said Mohamad Taufik, 38, from the town of Donggala, where five of his relatives are still missing.

“There are many young children here who are hungry and sick but there is no milk or medicine.”

