A volcano-triggered tsunami has left at least 168 people dead and hundreds more injured after slamming without warning into beaches around Indonesia's Sunda Strait.
Photo: AFP A man walks amid debris from damaged buildings in Carita on December 23, 2018, after the area was hit by a tsunami on December 22 following an eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano
Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave, which hit the coast of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java about 9:30 pmon Saturday after a volcano known as the "child" of Krakatoa erupted, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Search and rescue teams were scouring rubble for survivors, with 168 people confirmed dead, 745 people injured and 30 reported missing across three regions, Nugroho said.
Tsunamis triggered by volcanic eruptions are relatively rare, caused by the sudden displacement of water or "slope failure", according to the International Tsunami Information Centre.
Unlike those triggered by earthquakes, they give authorities no time to warn residents of the impending threat.
The destructive wave left a trail of uprooted trees and debris strewn across beaches.
"The cause of the undersea landslide was due to volcanic activity of Anak Krakatoa, which coincided with a high tide due to the full moon," Nugroho told reporters in Yogyakarta.
He also said the death toll would likely increase.
Indonesian authorities initially claimed the wave was not a tsunami, but instead a tidal surge and urged the public not to panic.
Nugroho later apologised for the mistake on Twitter, saying because there was no earthquake it had been difficult to ascertain the cause of the incident early on.
"If there is an initial error we're sorry," he wrote.
