Little near centre of Indonesian quake
Justice Minister Andrew Little says it was a ‘‘pretty full on experience’’ being caught in the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck Indonesia late on Sunday.
At least 90 people died after the powerful earthquake hit about 6.46pm (11.46pm NZ time), 27 kilometres north-east of northern Lombok at a depth of 15km.
Little was in Lombok for a counter-terrorism meeting when the quake struck.
‘‘There was pretty violent shaking, people fell to the ground and it was fairly prolonged then there was a massive power outage,’’ he told Radio NZ.
Little said that the quake caused a power outage, and the delegates at the meeting – including Australia’s home affairs minister Peter Dutton – were evacuated down the stairs where there was visible damage.
‘‘The lower floors we went down there was more damage visible certainly than there was at the top.’’
Little said he’d been through enough earthquakes before to know a violent shake when it was happening. He added that ‘‘it was pretty terrifying’’, and other delegates had not been through anything similar.
‘‘Because we were at the top of a building it was shaking quite a lot and a lot of things falling over. I was seated at the time, so I pretty much stayed where I was.
‘‘By the time I thought ‘this is going on a bit long’ there were too many people under the table for me to join them but it stopped shortly after that.’’
Dutton said the quake ‘‘was powerful enough to put us on the floor’’.
‘‘We were up on the 12th floor, the lights went out and we were able to evacuate.
‘‘I think we were pretty lucky in the end.’’
Little and Dutton were evacuated from their hotel to the nearby airport, Radio New Zealand reported.
The epicentre of the quake was the northern slope of Mount Rinjani, near where a quake struck a week ago. The area continued to be rattled by aftershocks.
A tsunami warning was issued soon afterwards, but was lifted about an hour and 45 minutes after the quake hit.
There were also reports of blackouts and of mobile phone networks going down in northern Lombok, near the epicentre of the quake, which had slowed down the flow of information on the number of injuries and on damage estimates.
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had no information to suggest New Zealanders had been affected by the quake.
‘‘There are currently 447 New Zealanders registered on Safetravel as being in Indonesia and nine registered as being in Lombok.
‘‘New Zealanders requiring consular assistance can call the New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta.
‘‘All New Zealanders in Lombok are advised to register their details on safetravel.govt.nz, follow any instructions issued by the local authorities and let their family in New Zealand know they are OK.’’