Survivors, meanwhile, recounted their tales of horror.

"We saw a big wall of black water. I ran with my son in my arms and when I looked back, the waves were at our house, they destroyed our house," said Ita Anita, who was on the beach with her 11-month-old child and other relatives. "The water knocked me down, my son slipped out of my hands and was taken by the water."

Pedi Mulyadi, a 43-year-old food vendor, said he was waiting on the beach for customers when the wave struck, killing his wife, Ratini, 33. The pair were clinging to one another when they were swallowed by the torrent of water and pulled 30 meters (yards) inland, he said.

"Then we were hit, I think by a piece of wood," Mulyadi said. "When the water finally pulled away, she was dead. Oh my God, my wife is gone, just like that."

Roads were blocked and power cut to much of the area.

Indonesia was hardest hit by a 2004 tsunami that killed at least 216,000 people in a dozen nations along the Indian Ocean rim, more than a half of them on Sumatra island's Aceh province.

Though the country started to install an early warning system after that disaster, it is still in the early stages, covering only Sumatra. The government had been planning to extend the warning system to Java by 2007.

The island was hit seven weeks ago by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 5,800 people, though the 180 kilometers (110 miles) of coastline hit by Monday's tsunami was not affected by that temblor.

Monday's quake struck at 3:24 p.m. around 240 kilometers (150 miles) beneath the ocean floor, causing tall buildings to sway hundreds of kilometers (miles) away in the capital, Jakarta. The region has been rattled by a series of strong aftershocks.

After the quake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and Japan's Meteorological Agency issued warnings of a possible tsunami in the Indian Ocean. The tsunami struck Java about an hour later and its effects could be felt as far as Bali island and near Australia's Coco Islands.

In addition to the 172 deaths tallied in Panganderan, central Java police chief Dody Sumantiawan said at least 77 people were killed and more than 70 others missing in nearby Cilacap district.

Thirteen others died elsewhere along the coast, officials and el-Shinta radio station reported.

Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.