Indonesian police said Tuesday at least eight people had been killed by a tidal wave after an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island on New Year's Day.
"Tomorrow I will leave for Damsol village where eight people have been killed by a tidal wave," Col. Hidayat Sumiarso, chief of police in central Sulawesi province, told Reuters.Hidayat said Damsol was in the same area where officials had earlier reported 384 houses and buildings had been damaged by the earthquake, which was centred in the Celebes Sea about 125 km (78 miles) north of Palu, on Monday.
Details remained sketchy about when the tidal wave struck and whether the extensive damage to the buildings in the remote area, which has no telephones, was caused by the quake or the tidal wave.