The death toll from Sunday’s devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has climbed to 347, the state-run Antara news agency reported today.
It said the majority of the victims were in Kayangan, on the north side of the island. Another 1,447 people were injured and 165,003 were displaced by the 6.9 magnitude quake, National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told the news agency earlier.
Around 200,000 people live in northern Lombok, a mountainous region, according to the 2010 census. On Tuesday, the government estimated 20,000 people are in need of assistance, with around 80% of buildings destroyed, as aid workers struggled to reach those affected by the disaster.
Meanwhile, the Mataram Search and Relief Office reported that officials were still conducting search and rescue efforts, especially in the ruins of the building, which allegedly still had buried victims, according to Antara.
It said the challenge facing medical workers is the higher number of patients, who are traumatized to stay indoors in the aftermath of a powerful magnitude-7 quake.
“They are still traumatized. Most of them are not willing to stay in the building while they are undergoing operation or after they have undergone operation. They want to be treated outdoors,” it quoted an official of the office as saying.
