Quake Kills 16, Strands Hundreds on Mountain

Rescuers are trying to evacuate hundreds of tourists stranded on Mount Rinjani on the Indonesian island of Lombok after an earthquake that killed 16 people triggered landslides. Mount Rinjani National Park chief Sudiyono said Monday a team of about 165 rescuers is expected to reach a crater lake where the foreign and Indonesian trekkers are trapped by late afternoon, the AP reports. "Providing food and medicine to them as soon as possible is now our priority," said Sudiyono, who uses one name.

The landslides on Rinjani killed an Indonesian student, raising the death toll from the magnitude 6.4 earthquake to 16. The shallow quake early Sunday damaged more than 1,400 houses and was felt on neighboring Bali, where no damage or casualties were reported. Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency has recorded more than 270 aftershocks. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency says more than 680 people are stranded on Rinjani based on figures from its entry gates where visitors are registered. Most are foreign—from 26 countries, including more than 330 from Thailand.

(More Lombok stories.)