JAKARTA, July 30 (Xinhua) -- A joint forces of Indonesian special military force unit, police and rescuers have been dispatched to rescue over 689 trapped foreign and domestic tourists on a mountain in Lombok Island after a strong quake triggered landslides that cut off routes, an official said Monday.
Sunday's quake has so far left 16 people dead, 355 others injured, and forced 5,141 people to flee homes as the jolts have destroyed over 1,000 houses and buildings in Lombok Timur district, the hardest-hit area, and Lombok Utara district of West Nusa Tenggara province, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho revealed.
At least 135 foreign holiday makers are among all of those being stranded on the Mount Rinjani tourist destination, he said.
A total of 184 personnel, comprising 100 personnel of special military unit force and 20 soldiers, along with police, medical personnel and those from search and rescue office started heading to the scene at 07:00 a.m. local time, carrying foods and drugs to help the tourists go down the flank of the volcano, said Sutopo.
"The tourists are requested to be calm down and remain staying in their position until the rescuers arrive to get them escape through safe routes," he told Xinhua in a text message.
The stranded tourists are from China, the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Japan, South Korea and others, he said.
"Landslides have already occurred, boulders and buried fell and cut off the roads, the access to go down from the mountain," Sutopo said.
A 6.4-magnitude quake rocked the province early Sunday, not far from the base of the mountain, according to the meteorology and geophysics agency.
Mount Rinjani volcano, a popular tourist destination, draws hundreds of thousands of climbers from offshores every year, according to the government data.
Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on vulnerable quake-affected areas so called the Pacific Ring of Fire.
