JAKARTA (INDONESIA) – Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said on Monday that as many as 81 people were killed in the powerful tremors that rocked Sulawesi island last week and more than 19,000 people have been displaced, adding that search and rescue efforts are going on.
The quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck West Sulawesi in the wee hours of Friday, forcing thousands to flee to safer ground. It is the latest in a string of disasters to hit the archipelago.
In a statement issued on Monday, disaster mitigation spokesman Raditya Jati said 81 people were confirmed dead and more than 250 were seriously injured.
Hundreds of houses suffered significant damage as well as a mall, a hospital and several hotels.
In the wake of thousands being displaced, authorities are working to stem the spread of the pandemic among evacuees and they are also conducting rapid antigen tests.
The world’s fourth most populous nation also witnessed a plane crash on January 9 in which 62 people were killed. There was also a deadly landslide in Java and the eruption of the Merapi and Semeru volcanoes.
President Joko Widodo is slated to fly to the province of South Kalimantan on Borneo island to view the flood damage caused by weeks of torrential rain which killed 15 people.
