Video: Death toll after Indonesian earthquakes rises to 1,234, rescuers hold hope for survivors

The death toll from powerful earthquakes and tsunami in Indonesia jumped to over a thousand people on Tuesday.

According to news agency AFP, the death toll increased to 1,234 which was previously at 844 people.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Indonesia was again struck by two quakes early in the morning, sending startled people into streets for safety.

A shallow and moderately strong 5.9 quake struck at 2359 GMT, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) off Sumba, an island of some 750,000 people, the United States Geological Survey said.

It was followed up some 15 minutes later by a stronger 6.2 magnitude quake in the same area at a depth of 30 kilometres.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the national search and rescue agency to send more police and soldiers into the affected districts as the rescuers struggle to reach some areas after they got cut off  Friday's 7.5 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami waves which destroyed roads, triggered landslides and downed bridges.

The Red Cross said the situation was "nightmarish" and reports from its workers venturing into one cut-off area, Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicentre, indicated it had been hit "extremely hard".

A particular horror in several areas in and around Palu was liquefaction, which happens when soil shaken by an earthquake behaves like a liquid.

About 1,700 houses in one neighbourhood were swallowed up, with hundreds of people believed buried, the national disaster agency said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has also said that it would accept offers of international aid, having shunned outside help earlier this year when an earthquake struck the island of Lombok.

Also read: PM Modi offers assistance to tsunami-hit Indonesia

(With inputs from news agencies)