The death toll from a strong earthquake that rocked eastern Indonesia last week continued to climb, with 27 people confirmed dead, a media report said Thursday. The earthquake, which measured 6.0 on the Richter scale, jolted the island of Alor, some 2,000 kilometers east of Jakarta, in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province last Friday. "We just received a report from Alor about the finding of a male body known as Petrus Lauden, 32, under the debris of a building," Fransiskus Salem, head of the local social affairs service of the East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration, was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara news agency. "According to reports from the scene the number of dead victims may still increase after thorough checks have been made," he said. At least 116 people were also seriously injured, most of whom were residents of Bukapiting and Kamot villages in the northeast part of the island, and were trapped in their crumbling homes when the quake hit in the morning. Almost 14,000 houses were totally or partially destroyed in the quake, as well as 250 school buildings, more than 350 places of worship and 400 state buildings, the province's disaster control unit said. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur in Indonesia, which is located in the Pacific volcanic belt known as the "Ring of Fire".
