At least 832 dead in Indonesia quake-tsunami disaster

Jakarta, Sep 30: The death toll from a powerful earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has reached 832, state media said Sunday, as rescuers scrambled to reach the stricken region and survivors helped to retrieve the remains of those killed.

At least 540 people had been badly injured, an agency spokesman said, as hospitals struggled to cope with the influx of casualties.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said the military was being called in to the region to help search-and-rescue teams get to victims and find bodies.

Survivors sifted through a tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber, rubble and flotsam up to 50 metres inland.

Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.

It lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Earlier this year, a series of powerful quakes hit Lombok, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighbouring Sumbawa.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of other deadly quakes including a devastating 9.1 magnitude tremor that struck off the coast of Sumatra in December 2004.