Associated Press, Jakarta – A powerful earthquake has rocked the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, triggering a 1.5-metre (5ft) tsunami that an official said swept away houses in at least two cities.
The tsunami hit Palu, the capital of central Sulawesi province, a smaller city in Donggala and several other coastal settlements, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia's disaster agency.
He said families were reported missing and communications and power supplies were disrupted.
"The cut to telecommunications and darkness are hampering efforts to obtain information," he said on Friday. "All national potential will be deployed, and tomorrow morning we will deploy Hercules [military transport planes] and helicopters to provide assistance in tsunami-affected areas."
Indonesian TV showed smartphone footage of a large wave hitting Palu, and people screaming and running in fear. The water crashed into buildings and a large mosque that was already damaged from the quake.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake on Friday was followed by numerous strong aftershocks, including one of magnitude 6.7. An earlier magnitude 6.1 quake in central Sulawesi killed several people, injured 10 and damaged dozens of houses.
The head of the meteorology and geophysics agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, said the tsunami waves were up to three metres (10ft) high. She said a tsunami warning triggered by the biggest quake was in place for about half an hour and was lifted after the tsunami was over.
Sutopo said the military would deploy troops to Palu and Donggala and the national police would mobilise officers to help with the emergency response.
Palu's airport halted operations for 24 hours owing to earthquake damage, according to AirNav, which oversees airline traffic in Indonesia.
Indonesia is prone to earthquakes because of its location on the so-called Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and faultlines in the Pacific Basin. In December 2004 a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.