West Sumatra's quake death toll recorded at 784

The West Sumatra disaster management coordination board (Satkorlak) has recorded as of Friday 784 deaths from last week’s devastating earthquake in the regency, with hundreds of others still missing.

The government has predicted that the final death toll could be in the thousands.

The board also said 867 residents suffered serious wounds while 1,374 others were slightly injured.

Satkorlak also revised its record to 122,964 destroyed houses, 58,45 moderately damaged houses and 59,186 lightly damaged houses.

The quake has so far caused Rp 2.18 trillion (US$231 million) in material losses. The local government is predicting that the total damage would cost between Rp 4 trillion to Rp 7 trillion.