A tsunami slammed Indonesia without warning, killing at least 222 and injuring hundreds more

A woman reacts after identifying a relative among the bodies of tsunami victims in Carita, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018.

(Image credit: Fauzy Chaniago/The Associated Press)

published 23 December 2018

A tsunami struck the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra Saturday evening, killing at least 222 people and injuring at least 800 more.

The wall of water swept in without warning and is thought to have been caused by undetected sea floor landslides from an eruption of the Krakatoa volcano, located in the strait between the islands.

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Rescue efforts are ongoing Sunday, and the death toll is expected to rise. This comes just a few months after an earthquake and tsunami on another Indonesian island, Sulawesi, in September killed 2,256 people.

Watch a video of Saturday's destruction via Al Jazeera below, including the moment the tsunami struck a concert on the beach. (Warning: These images are disturbing.) Bonnie Kristian

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.