The death toll in the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Indonesia shot up to 166,320 as up to Wednesday, and thousands of others still missing, an official of the Health Ministry confirmed the figure in a phone call with Xinhua.

"The number of death toll is predicted to rise, as there are still many bodies unfound from the debris," the official in chargeof the ministry said.

An extremely powerful earthquake of 8.7 degrees on Richter scale shocked many parts of the provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh on Dec. 26 and caused a massive tsunami surrounding the Indian Ocean. Enditem