Pangandaran (Indonesia), July 22 (Reuters): Fears of disease grew in Indonesia's tsunami-hit areas today as thousands of people camped out in the heat with no clean water five days after the disaster that killed nearly 700 people.

Several thousand people fled to camps in hills above the beach town of Pangandaran after Monday’s tsunami, which displaced some 45,000 along a 300-km stretch of the south coast of Java, Indonesia’s most populous island. Some are still there because they have lost their homes, while many fear being caught in another tsunami if they go back.

“The risk of catching diseases is there because they live in an open area with limited tents and water,” Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's crisis centre, said.