At least two dead and 44 wounded after a 5.5 degree earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok

At least two people died and 44 were injured after a earthquake Sunday (March 18, 2019) of 5.5 degrees of magnitude on the island of Lombok, in the center of the Indonesian archipelago, which was hit last year by a series of earthquakes that caused more than 500 death.

The deceased are two Malaysian tourists who were dragged by a avalanche with 36 other people in the Tiu Kelep waterfall, at the base of the Rinjani volcano, which dominates the northeast of the island, according to the spokesman of the disaster mitigation agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

The earthquake He also provoked collapse of 32 buildings, about 500 people suffered moderate casualties and more than eighty people, including 22 Malaysians, had to be evacuated from the vicinity of the volcano.

The hypocenter it was 23.6 kilometers deep and about 4 kilometers southwest of the city Sembalun Bumbung, in the north-east of the island, according to the United States Geological Survey, which records global seismic activity.

Between July 29 and August 19, 2018, a series of tremors in Lombok, near the island of Bali, has caused 564 deaths and more than 400,000 displaced people, most of them after a devastating disaster. earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on August 5th.

After the first earthquake last year, there were more than 500 mountaineers trapped in the Rinjani volcano, which is one of the main tourist attractions of Lombok and the second highest in Indonesia (3,726 meters).

Indonesia is based on the "Pacific Ring of Fire", an area of ​​high seismic and volcanic activity in which approximately 7,000 earthquakes occur each year, most of which are moderate.