People wait for medical aid at a makeshift hospital after the earthquake in Lombok Island (Photo: AFP/VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – The death toll from the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that hit the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on August 5 had risen to 131 by the afternoon of August 8.
Up to 236 people were severely injured in the quake while 156,000 others have been displaced.
With 230 aftershocks, the quake also damaged tens of thousands of houses, along with many schools and worshipping places.
The National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB)’s spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on August 8 that evacuation efforts have been stepped up but the death toll will keep rising.
Muhammad Zainul Majdi, Governor of West Nusa Tenggara province which covers Lombok, said there was a dire need for medical staff, food and medicine in the worst-hit areas.
Hundreds of bloodied and bandaged victims have been treated outside damaged hospitals in the main city of Mataram and other badly affected areas.
The scale of this quake is massive for West Nusa Tenggara, he said.
Arifin Muhammad Hadi, a spokesman for the Indonesian Red Cross, said in some villages he visited the destruction was almost 100 percent, all houses collapsed, roads were cracked and bridges were broken.
The 6.9-magnitude quake came a week after another earthwauke on Lombok killed 17 people.
Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismic activity hotspot.
It is frequently hit by earthquakes, most of them harmless. However, the region remains acutely alert to tremors that might trigger tsunamis.-VNA
VNA
