Strong tsunami hits Indonesia

JAKARTA, (Patria) - A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday, hours after a slightly weaker earthquake destroyed houses in the same area.

Indonesian television broadcast footage of a powerful wave hitting the city of Palu, which has a population of about 350,000, Hina reports. 

The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency earlier issued a tsunami warning for people in the central and western provinces of Sulawesi, the fourth largest island in Indonesia and the eleventh largest in the world, urging residents to move to higher ground.

- Residents of coastal areas, please move away from the coast - the spokesman for the state disaster prevention agency said on television.

The United States Geological Survey estimated the strength of the second earthquake at 7.5 magnitude, after an initial estimate of 7.7 magnitude.  The first earthquake destroyed houses, killed one person and injured at least ten, authorities said.

- The earthquake was felt extremely strongly, we expect more damage and casualties - Nugroho added.

A series of earthquakes in July and August on the tourist island of Lombok killed nearly 500 people, hundreds of kilometers southwest of Sulawesi. Indonesia lies on the edge of the Pacific Ring of Fire and is frequently hit by earthquakes.

A major earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra in 2004 triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people across the Indian Ocean in 13 countries, including 120,000 Indonesians.