JAKARTA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has planned to provide assistance funds for families whose houses were damaged by the recent strong earthquake in Lombok Island, located in the nation's province of West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) province.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo made the remarks during his visit in refugee shelters located in the worst-affected area of Madayin village, East Lombok Regency on Monday.
"There would be assistance funds amounted around 50 million rupiah (about 3,400 U.S. dollars) for each of those whose houses collapsed by the earthquake," the president told reporters, adding that the exact relief fund for the families would be suited with the scale of damages in their houses.
He said delivery of the funds would be conducted by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), supervised by the Public Works and Housing Ministry and monitored by provincial and regency governments.
The 6.4-magnitude earthquake and series of aftershocks that occurred in the Indonesia's prominent destination near Bali on Sunday morning have damaged around 1,000 buildings, the BNPB said earlier.
Death toll from the disaster has rose to 16 and the number of the injured surpassed 300, BNPB said.
The quake has displaced 5,141 people in East Lombok Regency alone, direly needing of foods, blankets, tents, baby diapers and medicines, reports said.
The joint efforts to rescue tourists trapped in Lombok's Mount Rinjani were underway, as the Indonesian military on Monday sent 140 personnel of the army's elite unit and two helicopters to evacuate the tourists from the popular mount located in the Rinjani national park.
The park's administration office said on Monday that 226 tourists were still trapped in the higher ground of Mount Rinjani that standing 3,726 meters above sea level.
According to the office, at least 600 domestic and foreign tourists, including those from the United States, Britain, Malaysia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Thailand, Singapore and China, climbed up the mount when the earthquake took place on Sunday.
So far, 554 tourists have been evacuated from the mount, the national park office said.
Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics agency (BMKG) advised people in Lombok to stay away from gorges and terrains that prone for landslide as aftershocks were estimated to continue.
It reported that 203 aftershocks have occurred until Sunday night with the highest magnitude was recorded at 5.7.