The death toll in the Indonesian tsunami has risen to at least 520, fuelling questions over why no warning was given ahead of the disaster.
Government officials said they received a warning that the island of Java was threatened by a tsunami following an underwater earthquake off the coast.
But they said they were unable to pass on the warning to coastal areas.
A fresh earthquake hit the island on Wednesday, but no injuries or major damage have been reported so far.
The epicentre of the latest quake was under the sea off Java's southwestern coast, and buildings shook in surrounding areas as far away as the capital Jakarta.
But officials at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no new tsunami was expected.
Indonesia is still working to build an early warning system following the massive 2004 Asian tsunami.
"I saw enormous waves engulf our beach and sweep away cars and boats"
The giant 2m-high wall of water which hit the resort of Pangandaran on Monday was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
Amateur video footage has emerged showing a black wall of water tearing towards a beach full of children.
Meanwhile, rumours of another giant wave hitting the coast caused hundreds of people to flee inland on Wednesday.
Soon after Monday's quake, US and Japanese agencies issued tsunami alerts for parts of Indonesia and Australia, but the Indonesian government says it was unable to relay the message to the coast.
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"Our system is not yet working properly. We are still developing a communication system especially for the regions," said one government scientist, Fauzi.
Peter Cameron, a Red Cross spokesman in the capital Jakarta, told the BBC the authorities had only received a warning about 20 minutes before the tsunami struck.
He said that "by the time they got it and got ready to disseminate it, the tsunami had already hit the coast".
Reminder of Aceh
JAVA TSUNAMI 17 JULY
Damage from the tsunami has been reported along a 200km (125 mile) stretch of Java's coastline.
Police and army teams are searching affected areas with sniffer dogs and mechanical diggers.
"We are looking for people who are still missing or buried under the rubble as well as clearing the debris," said army officer Deden Rajab.
According to Maman Susanto, from the government's national disaster co-ordinating board, 275 people are still listed as missing.
Survivors in Pangandaran have been describing their terror, saying said the experience brought back memories of the 2004 tsunami.
"When I heard the word tsunami, images from Aceh flashed in my mind and like everybody else I ran and tried to distance myself from the sea as fast as possible," said Sudarmin, a 48-year-old coconut farmer.
More than 50,000 people have been displaced and are currently living in makeshift tents or on the floors of mosques.
Many people have been living in the hills since the disaster.
"I am too scared to go down," one elderly woman told the French news agency AFP.
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