Food to quake victims stopped

JAMBI, Jambi: Provincial administration spokesman Fuad M. Yusuf said Saturday distribution of food supplies to quake victims in Kerinci regency have been stopped as of Oct. 21.

He said the stoppage was based on a social service ministerial decree that states that food for victims of natural disasters should be supplied for no more than a week after the calamity strikes.

"In fact we should have stopped the supplies a week earlier," he told Antara news agency.

The distribution period was extended for a week upon recommendations from the provincial administration and religious figures, he added.

Eighty-five people were killed, more than 1,800 injured and 17,00 houses damaged, or destroyed, in the earth quake measuring seven on the Richter scale that struck around midnight on Oct. 7. (imn)