Indonesia: at least 10 dead in powerful earthquake on Lombok Island – International



[ad_1]

This powerful earthquake caused scenes of panic, residents fleeing their homes and hotel occupants rushing outside. The quake, whose epicenter was located shallow, seven kilometers, took place at 6:47 am local time Sunday (22:47 GMT Saturday). It was followed by more than a hundred aftershocks, said the USGS Geophysical Institute.

"The earthquake killed at least 10 people, about 40 people were injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed. damaged, "said a spokesman for the Indonesian Disaster Management Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

" We expect the balance sheet to increase further because we have not finished collecting information " after the disaster, he added.

A 30-year-old Malaysian woman is among the victims, Sutopo said, adding that the wounded had been hit by debris.

"The earthquake was very hard, everyone at home panicked, we all ran out, "said Zulfikli, a resident of northern Lombok, AFP.

" All my neighbors have come out too, and electricity has been cut, "he added.

At least two replicates were greater than magnitude 5, according to the USGS

The earthquake occurred 50 kilometers northeast of Mataram, the main city of Lombok. This island is a famous tourist destination and is located a hundred kilometers east of the island of Bali, also very touristy.

Two tourists injured

Another consequence of the powerful earthquake, hiking trails Mount Rinjani, a volcano rising to some 3,700 meters above sea level on Lombok Island, was closed following landslides, the agency said.

Two Spanish tourists who climbed the Mount with a local guide at the time the earthquake occurred were slightly injured following a landslide, told AFP the owner of a guest house near the Rinjani volcano. [19659002"Stoneswerefallingonthematthetimeoftheearthquake"saidKaryadiwhohasonlyonesurnameasmanyIndonesians

"Our guests were shocked. uninterrupted this morning ", has he added.

At the Katamaran Hotel on Senggigi Beach, some thirty guests rushed into the lobby of the establishment for half an hour, before returning to their rooms.

"They they calmed down and returned to their rooms when we explained to them that the earthquake had not resulted in a tsunami, "the hotel's receptionist Nyoman Suwarningsih told AFP.

The earthquake was also felt on the small islands of Gili, off Lombok, popular tourist destinations.

"Fortunately, there was no panic during the earthquake, even though it was quite powerful," Lilis Letisha, a receptionist at Ombak Paradise Hotel, told AFP. of Gili Air.

No tsunami warnings were issued, said spokesman for Indonesian Geophysics and Meteorology Agency Hary Tirto Djatmiko.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands and islets, is on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of ​​high seismic activity. The country is hit by many earthquakes, but most of them are not dangerous.

In 2004, a tsunami caused by a magnitude 9.3 submarine earthquake off the island of Sumatra, in west of the archipelago, killed 220,000 people in countries bordering the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

[ad_2]
Source link