Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesian authorities ordered massiveevacuations on December 28 in residential areas from the coast along SundaStrait following a warning of a possible second tsunami triggered by theeruption of Anak Krakatau volcano.

The Indonesian disaster management agency put the total number ofevacuees from danger zones at 40,386 people in the provinces of Banten andLampung, twice of the figure announced in the previous day.

A joint task force has been conducting the search and rescue for thetsunami victims trapped under the debris after the volcano-triggered tsunami onDecember 22.

The death toll from the tsunami reached 426, while the number of thoseinjured in the disaster jumped sharply from over 1,400 people to a total of7,202.

Indonesian volcanologist and disaster authorities have advised localsand tourists not to travel to the coast along the strait between Java andSumatra islands for fear of fresh tsunami.

The eruption on December 22 caused the southwestern flank of the AnakKrakatau volcano's caldera to collapse, leading to underwater landslides thattriggered the tsunami hitting coastal areas on the western tip of Java and thesouthern tip of Sumatra. This was the third tsunami that struck Indonesia overthe past six months.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddlesthe so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collideand a large portion of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.Anak Krakatau is one of the 127 active volcanoes which run the length of thearchipelago.

Most recently, a quake and tsunami killed thousands of people in thecity of Palu on Sulawesi island in September.

In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake offthe coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countriesaround the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.-VNA