There was no warning before the waves struck the Pandeglang district, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Nugroho said 843 people have been injured and 28 are unaccounted for.
The tsunami appears to have been triggered by a combination of underwater landslides caused by the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait that lies between the islands of Java and Sumatra.
Eyewitnesses described fleeing for their lives as beachfront hotels and homes were swept away by a towering wall of water on Saturday evening.
The waves caused a stage to collapse in the Tanjung Lesung beach resort while holidaymakers and locals were watching the Indonesian pop band Seventeen.
One member of the band has been confirmed dead as well as the manager, according to the Jakarta Post. All the other band members were still missing.
Even though Indonesia was the worst country affected by the devastating Boxing Day 2004 tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people, it still lacks the proper equipment to alert that a tsunami threat is coming.
“We need multi-hazard early warning system,” Nugroho said. “And we need lots of it.”
Nugroho pointed out that tsunamis are much faster and less predictable than tidal waves, which are caused by atmospheric conditions.
“We used to know that a tsunami happens after an earthquake. There was no quake last night. That is why there was no warning,” he said referring to the underwater landslides.
The tsunami has destroyed 558 houses and heavily damaged nine hotels, 60 restaurants and 350 boats, indicating the tsunami hit residential and tourist areas.
As of now, no foreigners have been found to have been killed.
