Jakarta: The confirmed death toll from an earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia's Sulawesi island has risen to 1,407, the disaster mitigation agency said on Wednesday.

More than 2,500 people were heavily injured in the 7.5 magnitude quake and deadly tsunami waves it triggered last Friday, the agency said, the Reuters reported.

Among the dead were 34 children whose bodies were discovered inside a church on the decimated island, according to ABC News, which cited a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Red Cross, reports nypost.com.

The kids were apparently attending a Christian bible camp when they were killed, according to spokeswoman Aulia Arriani, who said that more victims were expected to be recovered from the rubble.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in Jakarta, the capital, that more people also remained trapped in Sigi and Balaroa, meaning the death toll is likely to rise.

He said 153 bodies were buried Monday in a mass grave and the operation continued Tuesday.

President Joko Widodo said he has ordered the national search-and-rescue agency to send in more police and troops into areas cuts off by destroyed roads, landslides and downed bridges, according to Reuters.

‘There are some main priorities that we must tackle and the first is to evacuate, find and save victims who’ve not yet been found,’ Widodo told government officials coordinating disaster recovery efforts on the west coast of Sulawesi.

The Red Cross described a ‘nightmarish’ situation as its workers ventured into Donggala, a community of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the quake’s epicenter that was hit ‘extremely hard.’

A video of Donggala showed rampant destruction, including flattened buildings and a ship that had been flung into port buildings by the tsunami.

‘What we need is food, water, medicine, but to up now we’ve got nothing,’ said an unidentified man standing amid ruins.

Donggala resident Mohamad Taufik, 38, said five of his relatives remained missing.

‘We feel like we are stepchildren here because all the help is going to Palu,’ Taufik said about the hard-hit city on Sulawesi. ‘There are many young children here who are hungry and sick, but there is no milk or medicine.’

Another resident was seen on local TV addressing the president.

‘Pay attention to Donggala, Mr. Jokowi. Pay attention to Donggala,’ he yelled. ‘There are still a lot of unattended villages here.’

Kasman Lassa, the town’s administrative leader, gave residents permission to help themselves to food — but nothing else — inside shops.

‘Everyone is hungry and they want to eat after several days of not eating,’ Lassa said on local TV. ‘We have anticipated it by providing food, rice, but it was not enough. There are many people here. So, on this issue, we cannot pressure them to hold much longer.’

In Palu, meanwhile, Reuters journalists saw a store being overrun by about 100 desperate people who were shouting, scrambling and fighting each other for items including clothes, toiletries, blankets and water.

Many grabbed diapers while one man made off with a rice cooker as non-essential goods were strewn on the floor amid shards of broken glass. At least 20 cops at the scene did not intervene.

The government has played down fears of looting saying disaster victims could take essential goods and that the shops would be compensated later.

In Palu’s Petobo neighborhood, Edi Setiawan said he and his neighbors rescued children and adults, including a pregnant woman – but his sister and father did not survive.

‘My sister was found embracing her father,’ he said. ‘My mother was able to survive after struggling against the mud and being rescued by villagers.’