UPDATE Rescuers search for survivors in Lombok after quake kills 91
At least 82 people have been reported dead and hundreds wounded, resulting from a 7.0 earthquake that rocked Lombok on Sunday evening.
Of the 82 deaths on record, 65 were in North Lombok, according to the latest available data from Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, as of Monday morning.
Lombok Utara adalah daerah yang terdampak gempa 7 SR di NTB paling parah karena dekat dengan pusat gempa. 82 orang meninggal akibat gempabumi hingga 6/8/2018 pukul 02.30 WIB. Di Lombok Utara sebanyak 65 orang meninggal dunia. pic.twitter.com/dsk9otNH00
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) August 5, 2018
Lombok’s northern end has been impacted heavily, with the earthquake’s epicenter at a depth of 10 kilometers, about 27 kilometers from northeastern Lombok. Most of the victims were in the mountainous zone of Lombok, far removed from the tourist hot spots in the south and west of the island.
The death toll had been at 37, just hours before, but spiked up on Monday morning as the extent of the earthquake’s destruction was realized overnight.
Thousands of homes have been damaged and Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency is still evacuating people, Nugroho also tweeted.
Just one island over from Lombok, the earthquake could also be felt strongly in Bali, where viral images have shown collapsed buildings and overturned motorbikes.
The earthquake initially triggered a tsunami warning from BMKG, the country’s meteorology agency, but the warning was later revoked.
“People were panicking… especially because of the early tsunami warning,” Nugroho said, as quoted by AFP.
Both airports in Mataram, Lombok and Denpasar, Bali remain operational, although there was damage to the building at Bali’s Ngurah Rai.
Straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, located along fault lines, Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries on earth, and is often site of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The 7.0 earthquake comes just a week after a 6.4 was also recorded off Lombok’s northeastern coast, which killed at least 17 people and forced some 5,000 people to evacuate.
With reporting from AFP
