Palu, Indonesia — More than 1,200 people are now known to have died in the quake-tsunami that smashed into Sulawesi, Indonesia said on Tuesday, as police pledged to clamp down on looting by survivors taking advantage of the chaos. Officers were witnessed firing warning shots and tear gas to ward off people ransacking shops in Palu, a coastal city ravaged by a 7.5-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned. Almost 200,000 people are in need of urgent help, the UN says. Survivors are battling thirst and hunger, with food and clean water in short supply, and local hospitals are overwhelmed by the number of injured. Police said on Tuesday that they had previously tolerated survivors taking food and water from closed shops, but had now arrested dozens of people for stealing computers and cash. “On the first and second day clearly no shops were open. People were hungry. There were people in dire need. That’s not a problem,” said deputy national police chief Ari Dono Sukmanto. “But after d...
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