Abrar Hussain: At least 10 people were killed after fresh tremors rocked the island of Lombok in Indonesia on Sunday, said authorities, a few weeks after a series of earthquakes killed hundreds and forced thousands to flee their homes.
Nearly 500 people have died in quakes and aftershocks since July 29 across the northern coast of the island, which lies just east of Indonesia’s top tourist destination, Bali. Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman at the national disaster mitigation agency, said yesterday that relief and reconstruction efforts had been “intensified”.
“The rebuilding of public facilities like hospitals and schools is being speeded up.”
According to the spokesman, more than 100 aftershocks had been recorded since Sunday night’s magnitude 6.9 quake, which sent panicked residents into the streets and disrupted power and communication lines across the island.
Officials in Mataram, Lombok’s main city, said that even on yesterday morning, aftershocks ranging between magnitude 4 and 5 were continuing and landslides triggered by the tremors blocked off access to many areas.
Sunday’s quake came exactly a fortnight after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake on August 5, which killed around 460 people and left hundreds of thousands of residents homeless and under open sky, refusing to shelter indoors over fear of continuing tremors. Authorities estimate damages from the quake in Lombok was around 5 trillion rupiah ($342 million).
-Source: Reuters