Fresh quake rocks Indonesia’s Lombok island
A strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok Sunday, sending people fleeing into the streets just two weeks after a tremor killed more than 460 people.
The epicenter was in East Lombok, hit at a relatively shallow depth of seven kilometers (four miles) and was felt across the island, officials said.
But it was less powerful than the deadly quake earlier this month and there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
“The earthquake caused people to panic and flee their houses,” national disaster
agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. “There have been no reports of death or (serious) damage but people are traumatized,” he said. reported Landslides in a national were park where hundreds of hikers had been trapped on a volcano after a quake in late July. The park has been closed since that incident. Residents said the latest earthquake was felt strongly in East Lombok.
deliver “I aid was to evacuees driving when to suddenly the electricity pole was swaying. I realized it was an earthquake. People started to scream and cry. They all ran to the street,” East Lombok resident Agus Salim told AFP.
The tremor was also felt in the island’s capital Mataram and on the neighboring resort island of Bali.
“Everybody ran outside their house. They’re all gathering in an open field, still terrified,” said Endri Susanto, a children rights activist in Mataram.
“People are traumatized by the previous earthquakes and aftershocks never seem to stop,” he said.
The latest tremor comes two weeks after a shallow magnitude 6.9 quake on August 5 leveled tens of thousands of homes, mosques, and businesses across Lombok. More than 460 people died and tens of thousands were injured.
The hardest hit region was in the north of the island, which has suffered hundreds of aftershocks since. A week before that quake another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.