Indonesia earthquake death toll nearly triples to 347

The death toll from the Lombok earthquake has risen dramatically to 347, the government-run news agency Antara has said.

Another Indonesian government agency has put the figure at 381, a significant increase from figure of 131 reported on Wednesday. The number of the dead may still climb higher, as rescuers work to free people trapped in the rubble.

The deadly 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island on Sunday night, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.

Officials and organisations including the military, the governor of the province that includes Lombok, the national search and rescue agency and the regent of North Lombok have issued different death tolls, ranging from 226 to 381.

The national disaster agency announced today that they believed the death toll to be 164 with at least 1,400 people seriously injured and 156,000 displaced.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for the national disaster agency, has repeatedly said the number of deaths will increase. Search and rescue teams have been working to access those in the worst-affected areas, close to the epicentre in northern Lombok.

Facebook apologised on Wednesday after users posting about the earthquake saw their messages decorated with images of balloons and confetti. Many Indonesian speakers wrote messages on Facebook using the word “selamat” - which can mean “safe” but also “congratulations” - triggering celebratory animations.

“The feature [automatic animations for “congratulations”] is widely available on Facebook globally,” said a Facebook spokeswoman. “However we regret that it appeared in this unfortunate context and have since turned off the feature locally.”

Search and rescue teams have been working to access those in the worst-affected areas, close to the epicentre in northern Lombok.

Sunday’s earthquake triggered at least 230 aftershocks, which were expected to continue for the next two weeks.

The US Geological survey reported a 5.2-magnitude earthquake just off the coast of Lombok between the tourist town of Senggigi and the Gili Islands on Monday at 11.50pm. It also reported a 5.4-magnitude quake at 2.21am on Tuesday, close to the site of Sunday’s 6.9-magnitude quake.

Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 quake on 29 July that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Rinjani.

Source: The Guardian