Indonesian tsunami death toll rises to 98,489

Indonesia’s official earthquake and tsunami death toll jumped by more than 4,000 today to 98,489, the government said – correcting a toll of 113,306 it issued earlier.

The Ministry of Social Affairs attributed the inaccuracy to staff mishearing figures called in by officials using crackly radios.

“These things sometimes happen since we are using radios as communication tools,” ministry spokeswoman Susanti said. “Sometimes it’s not clear enough.”

More than 15,000 people are still missing in Aceh, a northern province of Sumatra island, which was devastated by a huge December 26 earthquake and the waves it triggered, the ministry said.

It said 2,086 people were in hospital and 21,659 houses had been destroyed and 544,927 people were displaced, up from the previous estimate of 517,226.

In Banda Aceh, Indonesian military spokesman Eahmad Yani Basuki said volunteers helping recover bodies, particularly from in and around the shattered coastal town of Meulaboh, had pushed up the death toll from previous estimates of 94,200.

“There was an incredible spike in the death toll,” Basuki said. “A good deal of it was from Meulaboh.”

Authorities have in recent days discovered bodies in villages around Meulaboh that have only just been reached for the first time since the quake sent waves slamming into the coast.