Death toll of Indonesia's quakes, tsunami climbs to 1,407

JAKARTA -- The death toll from Indonesia's multiple earthquakes and an ensuing tsunami jumped to 1,407 on Wednesday, the country's disaster management agency said.

Most of the dead were recovered in Palu, the provincial capital of Central Sulawesi province.

The search and rescue operations were underway with more rescuers and equipment joining in the mission, spokesman of the national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Soldiers, police, government personnel and volunteers flocked in the catastrophe-rattled areas to join a total of 6,399 rescuers already in the scene, and were rushing to retrieve victims under the ruins, he said.

The quakes that triggered a tsunami destroyed 2,403 houses, according to a satellite image, while a total of 362 aftershocks with 12 of them felt occurred after the main shock, said Sutopo.

The natural disaster forced a total of 70,821 people to flee their homes and take shelter in camps or under tarpaulins in 141 spots. So far, not all of the basic needs has been provided, he said.

The spokesman also said the country's tsunami warning systems needed urgent repair.

Indonesia had installed a series of tsunami warning systems across the archipelagic country, home to over 17,500 islands. But since 2012, the devices have not been functioning, and many of them were vandalized or stolen, said the spokesman.