The death toll in the recent earthquakes in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, has increased to 436 as of today, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
“The victims in the figure are those recorded by village heads and village security officers. They have been verified, and death certificates have been issued for a total of 259,” Antara News quoted BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho as saying in a press release
He explained the highest number of the victims was found in the district of North Lombok, totaling 374. A total of 37 victims were found in West Lombok, 12 in East Lombok, nine in Mataram city, two in Central Lombok, and two in Denpasar, Bali.
“Most of them died after being hit by rubble from collapsed buildings or buried under landslides. Evacuation efforts are still ongoing,” he remarked.
Sutopo said the number of injured was recorded at 1,354, of which 783 were seriously injured.
North Lombok is the worst affected area due to its vicinity to the epicenter of the magnitude-7 quake that hit on Aug 5.
Aid supplies continued to being distributed to the affected regions, and the biggest obstacle for it was access, as many roads had been damaged.
To overcome the hurdles, three helicopters from BNPB, TNI or military, and Basarnas, the national search and rescue agency, have been deployed to transport supplies to isolated locations, he added.
