Indonesian authorities ordered massive evacuations on December 28 in residential areas from the coast along Sunda Strait following a warning of a possible second tsunami triggered by the eruption of Anak Krakatau volcano.

People in Lampung province flee to temporary shelters (Photo: AFP/VNA)

The Indonesian disaster management agency put the total number of evacuees from danger zones at 40,386 people in the provinces of Banten and Lampung, twice of the figure announced in the previous day.

A joint task force has been conducting the search and rescue for the tsunami victims trapped under the debris after the volcano-triggered tsunami on December 22.

The death toll from the tsunami reached 426, while the number of those injured in the disaster jumped sharply from over 1,400 people to a total of 7,202.

Indonesian volcanologist and disaster authorities have advised locals and tourists not to travel to the coast along the strait between Java and Sumatra islands for fear of fresh tsunami.

The eruption on December 22 caused the southwestern flank of the Anak Krakatau volcano's caldera to collapse, leading to underwater landslides that triggered the tsunami hitting coastal areas on the western tip of Java and the southern tip of Sumatra. This was the third tsunami that struck Indonesia over the past six months.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and a large portion of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. Anak Krakatau is one of the 127 active volcanoes which run the length of the archipelago.

Most recently, a quake and tsunami killed thousands of people in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island in September.

In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

(Source: VNA)