Rescuers dig through mosque rubble for aunt of sprinter

KARANGPANGSOR: Rescuers in Lombok island dug through the rubble of a mosque yesterday, hoping to reach the aunt of a sprinter who became a national hero last month at the under-20 world championships in Finland.

Salama, 52, was at a prayer class at the mosque here when the 6.9magnitude quake struck the island on Sunday, killing more than 130 people and leaving thousands homeless as buildings collapsed.

She is an aunt by marriage of Lalu Muhammad Zohri, 18, who just over a year ago could barely afford running shoes and was hardly known outside his village.

He became a household name almost overnight last month, when he won the 100m gold at the World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland. Now, he carries the hopes of Indonesia at the Asian Games, which it is preparing to host in the next few weeks.

He lives two doors away from his aunt, Salama.

Rescuers used a mechanical digger to clear a jumble of metal rods and concrete beside the stillintact green dome of the mosque, but there had been no signs the woman was alive and relatives appeared to have lost hope.

“I come here in the morning and go back to the relief camp at night,” said Husni, a family member, as he watched the rescue effort. “Hopefully, with the arrival of heavy equipment, we can get her remains back.”

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.