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New quake hits Indonesia's Lombok as death toll from first tremor tops 300 Lombok earthquake: new quake hits as death toll from earlier tremor tops 300
(about 2 hours later)
An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 hit Indonesia’s Lombok island on Thursday, less than a week after a 6.9-magnitude tremor that is believed to have killed more than 300 people. An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 has hit Indonesia’s Lombok island, less than a week after a 6.9-magnitude tremor that is believed to have killed more than 300 people.
Thursday’s earthquake struck just after midday, sending panicked residents into the streets. According to information from Indonesia’s meteorology agency the epicentre of the quake was 6km north-west of the island with a depth of 12 meters. Thursday’s earthquake struck just after midday, sending panicked residents into the streets. According to information from Indonesia’s meteorology agency the epicentre of the quake was 6km north-west of the island with a depth of 12km.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for the national disaster agency, said that there was “public panic” on Thursday as people ran from their homes as they felt the latest tremor. “The public are still traumatised by the quake before,” he said. Initial footage posted by Sutopo on Twiter showed indications of further damage to buildings and power lines. Residents in the city of Mataram and north Lombok, the areas hardest hit this past week, panicked after Thursday’s strong tremor, pouring out of their homes and evacuation posts. “There was one person who fell from the stairs because the tremor shook the stairs when they tried to get out of the building,” Rangga, one local resident in central Lombok, told CNN Indonesia.
The death toll for Sunday’s earthquake is still climbing and unclear. Officials and organisations including the military, the governor of the province that includes Lombok, the national search and rescue agency and the regent of North Lombok have issued different death tolls, ranging from 226 to 381. Thursday’s was the biggest of 355 aftershocks since the 6.9-magnitude quake last Sunday, which displaced more than 154,000 people, many of whom have been sleeping in makeshift tents by the roadside and in their fields.
The government-run news agency Antara put the death toll for Sunday’s tremor at 347. The number of the dead may still climb higher, as rescuers work to free people trapped in the rubble. A short video posted by Indonesia’s national disaster agency spokesperson, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, on his Twitter account showed that Thursday’s quake has caused additional damage, with some buildings and power lines collapsed.
The national disaster agency announced today that they believed the death toll to be 164 with at least 1,400 people seriously injured. They estimate that 156,000 were displaced by Sunday’s earthquake and are currently sleeping rough in makeshift tents, with supplies hard to come by. The full extent of the accumulative damage caused by the Thursday quake was not immediately known.
Sutopo, from the national disaster agency, has repeatedly said the number of deaths will increase. However, he said it was not uncommon for confusion on exact deaths tolls to arise during an emergency, as has occurred in previous natural disasters, such as an earthquake in Padang in 2009, and the eruption of Mount Merapi in 2010. Indonesia’s disaster and rescue agencies, as well as local officials and the military, which are coordinating on relief efforts, are still trying to work out the exact death toll caused by Sunday’s powerful earthquake. Rescuers are continuing to retrieve bodies and attempting to get basic supplies such as food and water to the worst-hit areas.
To clarify the difference in figures agencies will be pooling their data, Sutopo said in a statement released to the media, where the identities of the victims will be crosschecked and verified. In some cases he said, it is possible one victim has been recorded three times based on different names, such as nicknames and first names, given to emergency workers. Data from the national army has indicated that as many as 381 have died, while the governor of West Nusa Tenggara put the figure at 226, a number echoed by those from the search and rescue agency. The national disaster agency has reported 131 deaths so far.
Search and rescue teams have been working to access those in the worst-affected areas, close to the epicentre in northern Lombok. The disaster agency spokesperson said it was not uncommon for confusion about exact deaths tolls to arise during emergency and crisis situations, as has occurred in previous natural disasters such as an earthquake in Padang in 2009 and the eruption of Mount Merapi in 2010.
Sunday’s earthquake triggered at least 350 aftershocks, which were expected to continue for the next two weeks. Straddling an area of high volcanic activity known as the “Ring of Fire”, Indonesia is highly prone to earthquakes.
The US Geological survey reported a 5.2-magnitude earthquake just off the coast of Lombok between the tourist town of Senggigi and the Gili Islands on Monday at 11.50pm. It also reported a 5.4-magnitude quake at 2.21am on Tuesday, close to the site of Sunday’s 6.9-magnitude quake. This is the third large earthquake to strike Lombok in the past month. On 29 July, a 6.4-magnitude quake killed 17 people and briefly stranded hundreds of trekkers on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Rinjani.
Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 quake on 29 July that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Rinjani.
IndonesiaIndonesia
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