DENPASAR – At least 32 people were killed on Sunday when Indonesia’sresort island of Lombok was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake.
The powerful quake triggered panic among tourists and residents, and wasalso felt on the neighbouring holiday island of Bali. On Lombok, thousandsfled from their homes to gather for safety in open spaces.
Agung Pramuja, head of the Disaster Mitigation Agency in the West NusaTenggara province which includes Lombok and neighbouring islands but notBali, told Reuters 32 people were confirmed dead, many from northern andwestern parts of Lombok. He said the agency was still collecting data onthe injured.
Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in the Lomboktown of Mataram at the time of the quake, wrote on Facebook that his10th-floor hotel room shook violently and walls cracked.
“It was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams,” he wrote. “Came out,and made my way down a staircase, while building was still shaking. Powerwent out for a while. Lots of cracks, fallen doors.”
The quake struck Lombok in the early evening at a depth of 10 km (6 miles).It came a week after a magnitude 6.4 quake killed 14 people on the islandand briefly stranded hundreds of hikers on the slopes of a volcano.
Most of Lombok suffered power cuts, local media reported.
Travellers at the international airports in Lombok and Bali were throwninto panic and there was minor damage to the buildings, but operations werenot disrupted, officials said.
The quake was felt for several seconds in Bali, where people ran out ofhouses, hotels, and restaurants.
“All the hotel guests were running, so I did too. People filled thestreets,” said Michelle Lindsay, an Australian tourist. “A lot of officialswere urging people not to panic.”
Other witnesses said the initial quake grew in intensity over severalseconds, rattling windows and doors, and there were many aftershocks.
The country’s disaster management agency urged people to stay away from thesea. However, an initial warning of a tsunami with waves of up to half ametre was later withdrawn.
Saffron Amis, a British student visiting the Gili Islands off the northwestcoast of Lombok, told Reuters by text message that dozens of tourists wereevacuated to a hill after the quake. – APP/AFP