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| The quake damaged thousands of homes, according to officials (AFP Photo/Handout) |
A powerful earthquake on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok killed at least 10 people, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of homes on Sunday, officials said.
The shallow
6.4-magnitude quake, which jolted the island in the early morning, sent people
running outside in panic and triggered landslides on popular mountain hiking
routes.
The initial
tremor in the north of the island was followed by two strong secondary quakes
and more than 100 aftershocks.
"The
earthquake killed at least 10 people, some 40 people are injured and hundreds
of houses were damaged," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency.
"We
estimate the number will keep rising because we are not done collecting
data," Nugroho said.
A 30-year
old Malaysian woman was among the dead, he said, adding those hurt were hit by
debris.
As
authorities scrambled to assess the damage to buildings and infrastructure,
popular trekking trails on Mount Rinjani were closed because of landslides,
according to the disaster agency.
One local
trek organiser described how rocks rained down on two Spanish hikers and their
guide as they were caught on a mountain trail.
"My
trekking guide who was accompanying two tourists from Spain suffered from minor
injuries during the jolt. They were hiking from Segara Anak Lake to Plawangan
and rocks were falling on them during the quake," said Karyadi, the owner
of a guesthouse near Rinjani where the pair were staying.
"Our
guests were in shock because of the incident," said Karyadi, who like many
Indonesians goes by one name.
"There
have been almost non-stop tremors since this morning," he said.
The
epicentre of the earthquake struck 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Lombok's main
city Mataram, the United States Geological Survey said, far from the main
tourist spots on the south and west of the island.
USGS said
two of the aftershocks measured more than 5-magnitude.
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The strong
tremor sent people running in panic from homes and hotels in the
early morning
(AFP Photo/Handout)
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The jolt
was felt some 100 km (60 miles) away in the bustling holiday island of Bali,
although there were no immediate reports of damage there.
"The
earthquake was very strong... and everybody in my house panicked, we all ran
outside," said Zulkifli, a resident of North Lombok, close to the
epicentre.
"All
my neighbours also ran outside and the electricity was suddenly cut off,"
Zulkifli told AFP.
Aftershocks
No tsunami
alert was issued, according to Indonesia's geophysics and meteorology agency.
"People
in East Lombok and Mataram felt the strong quake for 10 seconds, residents were
panicking and running outside of their homes," Nugroho said earlier,
adding people had run for open spaces like football fields.
At the
holiday island's hotels, tourists raced outside as the quake struck.
At the
Katamaran Hotel & Resort in Senggigi beach, some 30 guests gathered in the
lobby for around half an hour before venturing back to their rooms.
"They
calmed down and returned to their rooms once we explained the earthquake did
not trigger a tsunami. Everything is back to normal now," receptionist Ni
Nyoman Suwarningsih told AFP.
The quake
also rocked the tiny Gili islands off northeast Lombok, which are popular with
honeymooners.
"Fortunately
there was no panic during the earthquake even though it was quite strong,"
said Lilis Letisha, receptionist at the Ombak Paradise Hotel on Gili Air
island.
Indonesia,
an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of
Fire, a seismic activity hotspot.
It is
frequently hit by quakes, most of them harmless. However, the region remains
acutely alert to tremors that might trigger tsunamis.
In 2004 a
tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of
Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the
Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
