Indonesia :Bodies buried in mass grave ,authorities call for international help.

Rescuers in the Indonesia island of Sulawesi are racing against the clock to save those still trapped in the rubble, as volunteers buried bodies in a mass grave following an earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Authorities struggling to deal with the sheer scale of the disaster have appealed for international help.

Four days on, some remote areas have yet to be contacted, medicines are running out and rescuers are struggling with a shortage of heavy equipment to reach desperate victims calling out from the ruins of collapsed buildings.

Authorities are bracing for much worse as reports filter in from outlying areas, in particular, Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and closer to the epicentre of the quake.

President Joko Widodo opened the door to the dozens of international aid agencies and NGOs lined up to provide life-saving assistance.

“Last night, President @jokowi authorized us to accept international help for urgent disaster-response & relief,” senior government official Tom Lembong wrote on Twitter, asking rescuers to contact him directly via his account and email.

Officials fear the toll will rise steeply in the coming days and are preparing for the worst.

At Poboya – in the hills above the devastated seaside city of Palu – volunteers dug a 100 metre-long grave to bury the dead, with instructions to prepare for 1,300 victims to be laid to rest.

Authorities are desperate to stave off any disease outbreak caused by decomposing bodies and have announced a 14-day state of emergency.

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