Death toll from Indonesia earthquake reaches 105, with over 4,000 tourists evacuated

JAKARTA - Death toll from Sunday's 7.0-magnitude quake in Indonesia reached 105 on Tuesday while a total of 4,636 visitors have been evacuated from the three islands near Lombok island, a government official said.

A total of 236 people were injured in the quake and most of them were hit by falling debris and blocks of concrete, spokesman of the national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

All the tourists have been evacuated to nearby seaports of Bangsal, Benoa and Lembar from the three tourism attraction islands, namely Gili Trawangan, Gili Air and Gili Meno, in West Nusa Tenggara province, the spokesman said.

Evacuation of tourists is underway with 11 boats mobilized, Sutopo told Xinhua in a text message.

The spokesman said the number of victims is expected to rise as the assessment work continues.

The quake struck at 18:46 pm local time (1146 GMT) On Sunday with an epicenter 18 km northwest of Lombok Timur in West Nusa Tenggara province and a depth of 15 km.