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More than 500 hikers and their guides, including many foreigners, were stranded on Monday at Mount Rinjani, a popular tourist spot on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake.
Helicopters and rescue teams have been deployed to evacuate hikers trapped on Mount Rinjani, a volcano popular with tourists for its hiking sites.
Among them are Frenchmen, Germans, Dutch, Americans or Thais, according to Southeast Asian archipelago authorities.
"There are still 560 people stranded" following landslides following the magnitude 6.4 earthquake which hit the island on Sunday, said the director of Rinjani National Park, Sudiyono, who has only one surname as many Indonesians.
"Five hundred are in the Segara Anakan Lake area and 60 in Bat "Ceper," he said.
The earthquake left 16 dead and more than 160 wounded. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, causing scenes of panic, residents and hotel occupants rushed outside.
The tremor was also felt on the small islands of Gili, popular tourist destinations off Lombok, as well as in Bali.
According to the evacuation plan of the authorities, relief operations on Mount Rinjani are expected to last until at least Tuesday. In addition to the 560 hikers, hundreds of others were able to descend from the mountain on Sunday.
Army helicopters dropped food and drink in several areas of the mountain to supply stranded hikers.
"For food, they can still survive a day or two," AFP Agus Hendra Sanjaya, spokesman for the research agency in Mataram, told AFP.
No hikers were injured , he badured.
– Rockfall –
The earthquake occurred 50 km northeast of Mataram, the main city of Lombok. This island is located about 100 km to the east of the island of Bali, also very touristy.
Mount Rinjani, which rises to 3,726 meters of altitude, is the second volcano of Indonesia and it is very popular for its hiking sites and magnificent views to the summit. The earthquake caused tons of stones and mud to fall, blocking mountain hikers
Mount Rinjani's trails were closed after the earthquake for fear of further landslides. The magnitude 6.4 earthquake was followed by two more strong earthquakes and more than a hundred aftershocks, he said.
Amongst the stranded hikers are 239 Thai nationals, the report said. Embbady of Thailand in Jakarta
Thai hiker Thanapon Worawutchainan, who was at the top of Mount Rinjani at the time of the earthquake, posted a video on his Facebook account of people falling. The shock was violent and people lay on the ground until the end of the aftershocks.
"It looked like the mountain before me was going to collapse, people were hurt by the falling rocks", Another Thai hiker, Funknathee Prapasawat, wrote in his Facebook account.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, 5,141 people are housed in temporary shelters and need safe drinking water, said a spokesman for the management agency of disasters, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, on Metro TV television channel.
Indonesian President Jokowi Widodo visited the affected areas on Monday and pledged financial aid to residents who lost their homes in the disaster.
"We must bear in mind that our country is on the belt of fire, so people must be ready for any disaster," said Mr. Jokowi.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and islets, is on the cei Pacific Fire, an area of high seismic activity. This country is hit by many earthquakes, but most are not dangerous.
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