A man in Indonesian eastern Papua province was killed by tsunami waves from Japan's massive earthquake, an official said Sunday. The 25-year-old man drowned after he was swept away by the waves late Friday in a coastal village near the provincial capital Jayapura, local search and rescue agency chief Suyatno told AFP, confirming local media reports.
"He was riding a motorcycle and was on his way to warn his family about the tsunami. But the waves carried him away and he drowned," he said.
"His body was found about an hour later near the beach." The 8.9-magnitude quake in Japan triggered a tsunami of "less than a metre" high in Jayapura, the country's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency technical chief Suharjono told AFP on Sunday. A smaller tsunami of only 10 centimetres hit Indonesia's North Sulawesi and North Maluku islands, he added.
"On whether the man was killed by the waves, we'll have to conduct further investigation on what actually happened," he said. However, Suyatno said that waters had swept 300 metres inland in Jayapura causing "minor damage" to several houses and a bridge.
The death toll from Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami is certain to exceed 10,000 in Miyagi prefecture alone, Japan's police chief told reporters Sunday.