Death toll from disasters in Indonesia expected to climb further

Rescuers searching islands ravaged by a tsunami off western Indonesia fear the death toll of more than 300 is likely to climb because hundreds of missing people may have been swept away. Elsewhere in Indonesia, villagers held a mass burial for some of the 30 people killed when one the country's most volatile volcanos erupted.

“All that we’ve seen thus far is an escalation of the death toll”, says Philip Charlesworth, Head of Delegation in Indonesia with the International Federation of the Red Cross. He adds that it is their expectation “that the death toll will probably rise to somewhere between six and seven hundred.”

Listen to Philip Charlesworth speaking to Lydia O’Kane.