Death toll from Indonesia quake tops 380

Emergency response period extended for another 14 days as number of displaced people soars to 387,000

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Mataram City, Lombok Island, Indonesia: An earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok has killed 387 people, authorities said on Saturday, adding hundreds of thousands of displaced people were still short of clean water, food and medicine nearly a week on.

The shallow 6.9-magnitude quake Sunday levelled tens of thousands of homes, mosques and businesses across Lombok, just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

"It's predicted the death toll will continue to grow because there are still victims who are suspected of being buried by landslides and under rubble, and there are victims that have not been recorded and reported to posts," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The number forced from their homes in the disaster has soared to 387,000, Nugroho said, with around 13,000 injured.

The hardest hit region of Lombok has been in the north, where 334 people have died and nearly 200,000 have been forced from their homes, according to latest official tolls.

Two people were also killed by the quake on the neighbouring tourist island of Bali.

Nugroho said the emergency response period has been extended another 14 days, which would allow authorities to deal with the "many problems" that still existed in the field.

Most of the displaced are sleeping under tents or tarpaulins near their ruined homes or in evacuation shelters, while makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.

Six days after the quake hit some evacuees have still not received assistance, particularly in the mountainous north of the island.

"The main problem is the distribution of supplies to thousands of refugee points," Nugroho said.

"Most of the roads in North Lombok were damaged by the earthquake."

Survivors of the quake have been shaken by hundreds of aftershocks, including a shallow 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday which caused people to flee evacuation shelters crying and screaming.
 

A woman performs a prayer in front of debris from Sunday's earthquake in West Lombok, Indonesia, on August 11, 2018.
A woman dries her laundry in front of her home destroyed by earthquake in West Lombok, Indonesia.
Workers work in the damage a showroom car building after an earthquake in Bali, Indonesia, Monday, Aug. 6, 2018. A powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on Sunday, killing at least 82 people and shaking neighboring Bali, one week after another quake on Lombok killed more than a dozen.
People react following an earthquake in Ampenan district, Mataram, Lombok, Indonesia.
A man examines the remains of houses, after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck, in Lombok on July 29, 2018.

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