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At least three people have been killed after a major earthquake has hit Indonesia’s Lombok island, Indonesian officials have said.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the magnitude-6.9 quake struck 3km from Loloan about 31km underground on Sunday. The agency registered four aftershocks after the initial tremor.
The tremor came a week after a magnitude-6.4 quake killed 17, injured more than 160 and damaged hunreds of buildings.
Authorities issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled.
“Please go to a place with higher ground, while remaining calm and not panicking,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.
She later said seawater had entered two villeges as high as 10cm and 13cm.
Many buildings are thought to have been damaged in Lombok’s main city Mataram said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency.
“They are mostly buildings with weak construction material,” Nugroho said.
The earthquake was felt for several seconds in neighouring Bali, about 100km away, where people ran out of houses, hotels and restaurants.
“All the hotel guests were running so I did too. People filled the streets,” said Michelle Lindsay, an Australian tourist.
‘Damage reported’
Reporting from Jakarta, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said damage has been reported again on Lombok island and also on Bali as a result of Sunday’s tremor.
“[There’s] a lot of damage reported from the smaller villages in the north and west of Lombok, but the real extent of the damage will only become clearer in the morning,” she said.
“There’s a lot of concern about the people who were in the villages already destroyed by last week’s earthquake. Many of them were still sleeping and staying on the streets because they were too afraid to go back into their houses.
“You can imagine the panic and traume for these people going through all this again.”
SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies
