Mataram: Multiple earthquakes — including a powerful and shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor — have rocked the Indonesian holiday island of Lombok, killing at least five people and setting off fresh waves of panic.
A series of quakes were recorded by seismologists throughout Sunday, the first measuring 6.3 shortly before midday which triggered landslides and sent people fleeing for cover.
It was followed nearly twelve hours later by a quake measuring 6.9 and at least five more significant aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey.
The picturesque island is already reeling from two devastating quakes on July 29 and August 5 that killed nearly 500 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.
Local disaster agency spokesman Agung Pramuja said five people were killed by the quake late last evening, two in eastern Lombok and three on the neighbouring island of Sumbawa.
Officials have evacuated a number of patients from a hospital in Sumbawa island for fear of worse destruction. Blackouts had hit much of Lombok, according to a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, who posted pictures of cracked roads and video footage of a large fire that broke out in a village on Sumbawa. (AFP)
