A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk.
The death toll from Indonesia's quake and tsunami jumped to 384, the disaster agency said on Saturday, reported news agency AFP.
The tsunami was triggered by a strong quake measuring 7.5 magnitude in Richter scale that brought down several buildings and sent locals fleeing their homes for higher ground.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a television interview there are “many victims.”
Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. A mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged and a shopping mall was reduced to a crumpled hulk. Bodies lay partially covered by tarpaulins and a man carried a dead child through the wreckage.
The tsunami was triggered by a strong quake measuring 7.5 magnitude in Richter scale that brought down several buildings and sent locals fleeing their homes for higher ground.
The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.
In the nearby city of Donggala, home to nearly 300,000 people, a large bridge with yellow arches that spanned a coastal river had collapsed.
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Indonesian TV showed a smartphone video of a powerful wave hitting Palu, with people screaming and running in fear. The water smashed into buildings and a large mosque already damaged by the earthquake.
Communications with the area are difficult because power and telecommunications are cut, hampering search and rescue efforts.
Palu, which has more than 380,000 people, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings.
Nugroho has said that essential aircraft can land at Palu airport’s though AirNav, which oversees aircraft navigation, said the runway is cracked and the control tower damaged.
AirNav said one of its air traffic controllers, aged 21, died in the quake after staying in the tower to ensure a flight he’d just cleared for departure got airborne safely.
Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo on Friday night said he had instructed the security minister to coordinate the government’s response to a quake and tsunami that hit central Sulawesi.
Widodo also told reporters in his hometown of Solo that he had called on the country’s military chief help with search and rescue efforts.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a television interview there are “many victims.”
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that UN officials were in contact with Indonesian authorities and “stand ready to provide support as required.”
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Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
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