Another 6.2 Earthquake rattles #lombok. This one centered a bit further west from previous center. 12 km in depth #lombokearthquake no tsunami potential. Light, moderate and heavy shakeup could be felt. BMKG has recorded 355 aftershocks as of this morningpic.twitter.com/cvjbnuDNdR
Another quake hits Lombok Island of Indonesia
A STRONG earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 has hit Indonesia’s Lombok island, causing buildings to collapse, according to witnesses and the Southeast Asian nation’s meteorology and geophysics agency.
The strong aftershock today was felt strongly on the island — and in nearby Bali — and followed a 6.9 quake on Sunday that killed at least 347 people and damaged thousands of houses.
Tens of thousands of people on Lombok are homeless after a Sunday’s powerful earthquake.
Today’s 6.2 magnitude quake was shallow, at a depth of 12 kilometres, centred in the northwest of the island, Indonesia’s geological agency said.
It said it didn’t have the potential to cause a tsunami.
A Reuters witness in Lombok said the latest quake sent people into the streets in panic and caused buildings to collapse.
“The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks since Sunday,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP.
Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok’s Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed.
A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms.
“We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong,” witness Sri Laksmi told AFP.
“People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic.”
A second earthquake has hit the Indonesian island of Lombok. Picture: Indonesian Meteorological and Geophysics AgencySource:Supplied
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.9. It’s the third big quake to hit Lombok in little over a week. Buildings still standing on the island have been weakened after Sunday’s 7.0 quake that killed at least 131 people and a 6.4 quake on July 29 that killed 16.
Most of the people who died in Sunday’s tremor were in Kayangan, on the north side of the island, according to the state-run Antara news agency.
The national disaster agency has stood by the official death toll of 131, despite other government agencies, including the military, reporting much higher figures.
The governor of the province that includes Lombok, the military and the national search and rescue agency each issued different death tolls that ranged from 226 to 381.
Another 1447 people have been injured and 165,003 displaced.
The Indonesian Red Cross says it’s focusing its Lombok earthquake relief efforts on an estimated 20,000 people in remote areas in the north of the island where aid still has not reached.
Spokesman Arifin Hadi says the homeless need clean water and tarpaulins most of all. He says the agency has sent 20 water trucks to five remote areas, including one village of about 1200 households.
He says, “People are always saying they need water and tarps.” He also says they’re continuing to look for people with untreated injuries.
