Death toll at 14 in 6.4 temblor — 160 injured
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A strong and shallow earthquake early Sunday killed at least 14 people and injured more than 160 on Indonesia’s Lombok island, a popular tourist destination next to Bali, officials said.
The quake damaged more than 1,000 houses and was felt in a wider area, including on Bali, where no damage or casualties were reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 6.4 quake struck at a depth of 4.4 miles. Shallow earthquakes tend to do more damage than deeper ones.
East Lombok district was the hardest hit with 10 deaths, including a Malaysian tourist, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency. The number of casualties could increase as data were still being collected from other locations on the island, he said.
At least 162 people were injured, including 67 hospitalized with serious injuries, Nugroho said.
The quake caused blackouts in East Lombok and North Lombok districts and triggered a large landslide from Mount Rinjani, an active volcano. Rescuers were evacuating more than 800 tourists from the mountain.
In East Lombok and the provincial capital of Mataram, the quake lasted about 10 seconds, causing residents to flee their homes, Nugroho said. He said most of the fatalities and injuries were caused by falling slabs of concrete.
Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency recorded more than 130 aftershocks.
Photos released by the disaster agency showed damaged houses and the entrance to the popular Mount Rinjani National Park, which was immediately closed for fear of landslides.
Eka Fathurrahman, the police chief in East Lombok, said the Malaysian woman who died was part of a group of 18 Malaysian tourists who had just visited Mount Rinjani when the quake jolted their guesthouse and toppled a concrete wall. Six other people were injured.