Death toll from Indonesia quake-tsunami hits 1,420

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The official death toll from last week's earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia rose to more than 1,420 Thursday, with over 100 missing as some aid arrives.

The 7.5-magnitude quake hit the Indonesian island of Sulawesi Friday and triggered a tsunami wave, soil rivers, and a continuously-climbing death toll.

As of Thursday morning, the official death toll was 1,424 people though some on the ground say it's much higher.

Indonesia's military authority, KOREM, said that 1,558 people have been confirmed dead and 113 are missing, TIME reported.

Balaroa, a middle-class neighborhood in western Palu, was especially hard hit, as forensic crews digging through wreckage to recover more bodies are losing hope of finding anyone alive.

"Every day we find more bodies," 2nd Lt. Nirwan Adi Putranto told TIME at the foot of the rubble.

"It's been five days now," he added, "it smells disgusting."

According to Indonesia's Mitigation and Disaster Agency, or BNPB, at least 70,000 people are homeless due to the storms and hospitals with minimal resources are treating 2,500 injured people.

Clean water and food supplies have started to come into the region, but some areas are inaccessible because of damaged infrastructure.

The Indonesian Red Cross said one village, Petobo, was "obliterated."

"(We) found that the village -- which was home to almost 500 people -- no longer existed," the Red Cross said in a statement.

Petobo residents told CNN they saw the ground turn to liquid and watched homes collapse before they barely escaped.

Thousands of people in Palu were aboard Indonesian military ships that had arrived with emergency supplies, the BNPB said.