PALU, Indonesia — The bodies piled up in the police hospital had begun to bloat and decompose when Sarah Wati arrived on Monday with a bullet wound in her foot.

In the wake of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake and a 20-foot tsunami on Friday that killed at least 1,234 people, the eastern Indonesian city of Palu was still reeling. Hungry residents were begging for aid, armed men were foraging shuttered stores, crowds besieged the airport and mass jail breaks left prisoners roaming free.

Ms. Wati had been in a jostling crowd, watching as around 20 people attacked an A.T.M. with pickaxes, she said. Nearby, the police shot in the air and then sprayed bullets to clear the plunderers and onlookers. Ms. Wati, 20, jobless and the mother of one, was hit in the melee.