Full extent of damage done by the earthquake, tsunami and aftershocks is still unknown

On Friday evening, Palu’s Talise beach had been heaving with people, gathered joyfully for the opening of the city’s Nomini music festival. But by Saturday morning, in the devastating aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Sulawesi, the beach was strewn with bodies. Corpses could be seen floating in the sea.

“Along the Palu coast, houses were swept away by the tsunami, including my house in Tondo, lost completely to the tsunami. Bodies are everywhere,” said Ical, a local journalist.

The full extent of the damage done by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and 170 aftershocks, is still unknown. The city of Palu, which was the focal point of most rescue efforts on Sunday, was strewn with debris but a lack of heavy equipment obstructed efforts to find survivors in the rubble, with rescuers just using their hands.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Palu residents wait to be airlifted by military planes at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport. Photograph: Antara Foto/Reuters

The city is built around a narrow bay which it is believed may have intensified the force of the tsunami waters as they hit. Visible among the wreckage was a bridge broken in half, a mosque submerged in water, its turret and dome collapsed inwards, and a shopping mall reduced to a crumpled wreck. “It is believed there are still people trapped in the mall,” said a reporter from the Indonesian news outlet MetroTV. “I can smell the very strong odour of decaying bodies.”

Rescuers spent the day attempting to rescue survivors who were heard screaming from the wreckage of Palu’s collapsed eight-storey Roa Roa hotel. Six people were pulled out alive but dozens are still trapped. “There are 50 people under the rubble of the building. Heavy equipment is needed for evacuation,” said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for the BNBP disaster agency.

Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue team, said that heavy equipment was on the way.

“We are trying our best. Time is so important here to save people,” he added.

Most bodies recovered in Palu were brought to a police hospital, where they began stacking up quickly, and by midday on Sunday, 320 corpses were laid out in the courtyard under the baking sun. People desperately looking for relatives walked among the bodies, trying to identify faces.

Among them was Baharuddin, who was searching for his son. “I have one child, he’s missing,” he said. “I last spoke to him before he went to school in the morning.”

Sutopo said once identified, the bodies would be buried in mass graves immediately to stop the spread of disease, but would be “buried properly” later.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rescuers retrieve a body from the rubble of a building in Palu. Photograph: HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images

The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, arrived in Palu on Sunday to inspect the damage. “There are many challenges,” Jokowi said to reporters. “We have to do many things soon, but conditions do not allow us to do so.”

While the death toll sits at 832, this barely accounts for the worst hit area, the city of Donggala, where 300,000 people live and rescue teams are still struggling to reach.

Rafiq Anshori, a spokesperson for the Red Cross on the ground in Palu, said he and his team had spent the day collecting bodies from the beach and outside buildings. He described the scenes the Red Cross team were encountering as “much worse than the earthquake in Lombok” – referring to the recent earthquake on the Indonesian island – and said most roads were cracked, making access difficult. He estimated around 60% of buildings in Palu were destroyed.

Tens of thousands of residents who escaped were in temporary shelters, many desperately trying to locate friends and relatives.

“The ground rose up like a spine and suddenly fell,” said Palu resident Nur Indah through tears. “Many people were trapped and buried under collapsed houses. I could do nothing to help. In the evening, some of them turned on their cellphones just to give a sign that they were there. But the lights were off later and the next day.”

Over 500 people have been injured and many taken to makeshift outdoor clinics, as hospitals were unable to cope under the increasing pressure.

Sitting outside the army hospital, Dwi Haris said he had only been in Palu for a wedding. Tears filled his eyes as he recounted feeling the violent earthquake shake the fifth-floor hotel room he shared with his wife and daughter.

“There was no time to save ourselves. I was squeezed into the ruins of the wall, I think,” said Haris, who had suffered a broken back and shoulder. “I heard my wife cry for help, but then silence. I don’t know what happened to her and my child. I hope they are safe.”