Major Indonesia earthquake kills 19
A major earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday killed at least 19 people, injured dozens and damaged buildings, officials said.
The 7-magnitude tremor struck just 10 km underground, according to the US Geological Survey. It was followed by two light to moderate secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.
“The latest data we have is 19 people are dead at Tanjung Hospital (North Lombok),” Agus Hendra Sanjaya, Mataram search and rescue spokesman, told AFP.
Many buildings are thought to have been damaged by the quake in Lombok’s main city of Mataram, said a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency. “They are mostly buildings with weak construction material,” he said.
Electricity was knocked out in several parts of the city and patients were evacuated from the main hospital, witnesses and officials said.
Officials issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled, but seawater poured into two villages, senior disaster agency official Dwikorita Karnawati told local TV.
The quake caused light damage as far away as Bandung, some 955 km from Mataram, but was felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali. Bali’s international airport suffered damage to its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal, disaster agency officials said.
Facilities at Lombok’s main airport were also unaffected, although passengers were briefly evacuated from the main terminal. AFP