Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian rescuers will stop searching for victimsof the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi on October 11, thecountry’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) announced on October 7.

BNPB spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho stated that victims whohave not been found are declared missing.

Some limited searching might still be undertaken butlarge-scale searches with many personnel and heavy equipment would cease, headded.

Central Sulawesi was ravaged by two devastating quakesmeasuring 6.1 and 7.5 on the Richter scale on September 28. The second wasfollowed by giant tsunami waves on the afternoon of the same day, destroyingthousands of houses and roads.

As of October 7 evening, the death toll climbed to 1,944,while more than 2,500 people are receiving treatment at hospitals and over62,300 are forced to be evacuated.

Official sources said 683 remained missing and 152 othersare believed to be still buried under ruins.

However, reports of authorities of Balaroa and Petobo, twolocalities adjacent to Palu, said around 5,000 are still unaccounted for. Thefigure has not been confirmed by official sources.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs has announced thatall residents of Central Sulawesi province suffering from the disaster willreceive the government’s social aid of 10,000 rupiah per person for threemonths.

Each of the disaster-hit permanent residential families willalso receive aid of 3 million rupiah, and the government will providerehabilitation funds to those whose houses got damaged or destroyed by thequake and tsunami.

At least 5,100 buildings and houses were destroyed by thequakes and tsunami, with Palu the hardest hit.

Indonesia is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcaniceruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "Ring of Fire",an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

A series of earthquakes in July and August killed nearly 500people on the holiday island of Lombok, hundreds of kilometres southwest ofSulawesi.

In December 2004, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake off thenorthern Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami across the IndianOcean countries, killing 220,000 people in 13 countries, including more than168,000 in Indonesia.–VNA