A powerful earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and triggered a tsunami has killed at least 384 people, with Indonesia’s vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, warning the death toll could rise into the thousands.

Kalla said there had been “no word” yet about casualties in the Sulawesi cities of Donggala and Palu, which are home to 300,000 people.

The Red Cross said in a statement that the situation was “extremely worrying”.

“We’re now getting limited communications about the destruction in Palu city, but we have heard nothing from Donggala and this is extremely worrying.”

Athonius Gunawan Agung, an air traffic controller who jumped off a tower roof as it was collapsing while waving out the last flight from Palu airport on Friday night, was one of the first casualties of the disaster.

The 21-year-old broke several bones, including an arm and a leg as he jumped off the tower. His employers sent a helicopter to take him to another city for treatment, but he died 20 minutes before it arrived.

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Palu, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, just before dusk on Friday, wreaking havoc and destruction across the city and triggering a deadly tsunami on its coast.

Advertisement

In the city of Palu, home to 350,000, at least 384 people have already been confirmed dead, with more than 500 injured.

The quake destroyed thousands of homes in the city, as well as an eight-storey hotel, hospital and a large department store.

The damage has been described as extensive: a main highway was cut off by a landslide and a large bridge washed away by the tsunami wave, which hit Palu’s Talise beach and the coastal town of Donggala.

The tsunami wave reportedly reached as high as 6 metres, and as it approached land was travelling up to 250mph (400km/h).

“The tsunami didn’t come by itself,” said Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. “It dragged cars, logs, houses, it hit everything on land.”

Indonesia’s geophysics agency (BMKG) has faced criticism over its handling of a tsunami warning issued after the earthquake was detected.

The agency lifted its tsunami warning 34 minutes after it was first issued following the earthquake based on data available from the closest tidal sensor, around 200 km (125 miles) from Palu.

“We have no observation data at Palu. So we had to use the data we had and make a call based on that,” said Rahmat Triyono, head of the earthquakes and tsunami centre at BMKG.

On Saturday morning as residents awoke to the destruction, with some areas entirely flattened – a horizon of scattered wood, debris and corrugated iron roofs – people have been desperately trying to find their missing relatives.

A Facebook page for information on Palu city has become a pop-up ledger for missing persons, with family members posting pictures of their missing children, wives, fathers and grandparents, in the hope that someone will find them.

Of the almost 400 dead, emergency teams have only identifed 97.