At least 1,407 people have been killed after a strong earthquake and tsunami hit Indonesia on Friday evening, authorities said on Wednesday, as rescuers continued to battle extremely difficult conditions in their search for survivors.



Indonesia's disaster agency, BNPB, confirmed the latest death toll in a news conference in Jakarta, adding that at least 2,500 people are severely injured as a result of the double natural disaster.

The magnitude 7.5 earthquake and 10-foot tsunami hit the island of Sulawesi, devastating the city of Palu, where most of the confirmed deaths occurred. For safety and religious reasons, hundreds of the dead have already been buried in mass graves. A single mass grave at Poboya, near Palu, is reported to have been prepared to hold 1,300 bodies.



"The situation in the affected areas is nightmarish," said Jan Gelfand, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) country cluster support office in Jakarta on Monday.



Glimmers of hope remain, however: people were still being pulled from the wreckage of hotels on Monday. But a lack of heavy-lifting machinery has hindered the rescue effort.