Indonesia trims tsunami toll
Hikes injury tally to 7,000
The number of people evacuated after Indonesia's deadly tsunami has nearly doubled to some 40,000 while more than 7,000 were injured in the disaster, officials said yesterday, as they trimmed the official death toll.
Authorities said 426 people had been killed -- down from a previous tally of 430 -- with double-counting by different districts blamed for the change. Two dozen people remain missing almost a week after the disaster.
The fresh figures come a day after Indonesia's disaster agency raised the danger alert level for an erupting volcano that sparked the killer tsunami at the weekend.
They have also warned that fresh activity at the crater threatened to trigger another deadly wave.
Previously, the number of displaced -- including many left homeless -- stood at 22,0000 but that figure has now jumped to just over 40,000, according to the latest tally.
Some 7,202 people suffered injuries, jumping from 1,495, while nearly 1,300 homes were destroyed as the waves crashed into the coastlines of western Java island and south Sumatra, authorities said.
"We're recommending that people who lived near the beach be permanently relocated," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a press briefing in Jakarta.