JAKARTA: The death toll from an earthquake that hit eastern Indonesia reached 100 on Monday, the disaster agency chief said, as relief operations continued for a 10th day.
The 7.7-magnitude quake shook the province of East Nusa Tenggara on August 15, followed by thousands of aftershocks, damaging more than 73,000 homes and forcing the evacuation of about 180,000 people.
The death toll reached 100 as more people undergoing treatment succumbed to their injuries, disaster agency chief Suharyanto said in a press conference, adding more than 1,600 people were injured.
Authorities were distributing aid using helicopters, trucks, and motorcycles, Suharyanto said.
The earthquake was Indonesia’s deadliest since 2022, when a shallow 5.6-magnitude quake killed hundreds in West Java.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 290 million people, straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are frequent.
