As officials began burying hundreds of dead in a mass grave Monday, thousands of survivors of a devastating earthquake and tsunami converged on the airport of this heavily damaged Indonesian city and clamored to leave, saying there was little to eat and their homes were unsafe.The confirmed death toll of 844, mostly from the city of Palu, is expected to rise as authorities reach areas that were cut off by the disaster. The magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck at dusk Friday and generated a tsunami said to have been as high as 6 meters (20 feet) in places.Search-and-rescue teams combed destroyed homes and buildings, including a collapsed eight-story hotel, for any trapped survivors, but they needed more heavy equipment to clear the rubble.Many people were believed trapped under shattered houses in Palu's Balaroa neighborhood, where the earthquake caused the ground to heave up and down violently, said disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.In the city's Petobo section, the quake caused loose, wet soil to liquefy, creating a thick, heavy mud that caused massive damage.
At least 844 people are now known to have died in the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami.