Indonesia's national disaster agency is insisting the death toll from the Lombok earthquake still stands at 131 after other government agencies including the military gave much higher figures.
The death toll in Sunday's devastating earthquake on Indonesia's Lombok island has risen to 347, the local news agencies reported on Wednesday. However, Indonesia's national disaster agency is insisting the death toll from the Lombok earthquake still stands at 131 after other government agencies including the military gave much higher figures.
The governor of the province that includes Lombok, the military, the national search and rescue agency and regent of North Lombok issued different death tolls on Wednesday that ranged from 226 to 381.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement that information being provided by different agencies needs to be complete before it can be cross-checked and officially verified. He said his agency is "still verifying the correctness of the data."
Nugroho said victims can be counted several times because of the common practice of people in Indonesia using several names and noted that families of victims are entitled to financial compensation from the government when a death is confirmed.
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