Powerful quake on Indonesia's Lombok island kills 91, tourists flee
MATARAM, Indonesia (Reuters) - Daybreak revealed chaos and destruction across the Indonesian resort island of Lombok on Monday after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake killed at least 91 people and prompted an exodus of tourists rattled by the second powerful quake in a week.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the death toll was expected to rise with initial reports of hundreds injured and thousands of buildings collapsed or badly damaged.
Power and communications were cut in some areas of Lombok, and the military said it was sending in a vessel with medical aid, supplies and logistical support for the island.
Lombok was hit a week earlier, on July 29, by a 6.4 magnitude quake that killed 17 people, injured hundreds and briefly stranded several trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.
The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) said that more than 120 aftershocks were recorded after earthquake, whose magnitude the US Geological Survey revised down to 6.9 from an original 7.0.
The tremor was so powerful it was felt on the neighbouring island of Bali where, according to BNPB, two people died.
“I was at the rooftop of my hotel and the building started swaying very hard. It felt like two metres to the left, then two metres to the right, I could not stand up,” said Gino Poggiali, a 43-year-old Frenchman, who was with his wife and two children.
His wife Maude, 44, said the family were on Bali for the first quake and Lombok for the second.
“This is it for me in Indonesia,” she said. “Next time we will stay in France or somewhere close.”
Long lines formed at the airport of Lombok’s main town, Mataram, as foreign visitors cut their holidays short.
The Garuda Indonesia airline said it was adding extra flights from Lombok to help tourists leave, and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted that the budget airline would try to lay on extra flights.