A shallow, magnitude 6.4 earthquake killed at least 10 people and injured 40 on Indonesia’s Lombok Island, a popular tourist destination next to Bali
Jakarta – At least 10 people were killed and 40 injured on Sunday after a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lombok island, an official said.
Indonesia’s geophysics and meteorological agency said the earthquake’s epicentre was located 47 kilometres north-east of the provincial capital Mataram at a depth of 24 kilometres.
A Malaysian tourist was among the 10 people who died after they were hit by collapsing debris, said Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
“The number of casualties is likely to increase because damage assessment is still ongoing,” he said.
Dozens of houses and other buildings were damaged, he said.
Access to the Mount Rinjani volcano had been blocked because of a landslide caused by the quake, he said.
The quake was also felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali, with tourists running out of their hotel rooms to safer locations.
“It was a very strong quake,” said Zainul Majdi, the governor of West Nusa Tenggara province, of which Lombok is part.
dpa
