Earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia; claims 82 lives

The citizens of Indonesia witnessed a panic on Monday when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the island, the quake claimed 82 lives. Indonesian security forces and emergency workers raced to aid victims of the earthquake on Lombok islands.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, “The search and rescue team is still scouring the scene and evacuating (people).” He also added that, “We estimate the number of victims will rise.”

A tsunami warning was triggered because of the quake, which was later cancelled. Shocks were also felt on the neighbouring island of Bali.

Due to the quake, many parts of the island had no electricity on Monday.

The quake survivors were treated on road, by the doctors on the temporary bed, surrounded by drip stands and monitors.

Najmul Akhyar, the head of North Lombok district, estimated that 80 percent of that area was damaged by the quake.

“We need heavy equipment because some mosques have collapsed and we suspect some worshippers are still trapped inside,” he told Metro TV.

It was the second quake in a week to hit Lombok. which left 17 people dead and damaged hundreds of buildings and triggered landslides. That previous earthquake was of 6.4-magnitude.

Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference shared his horrific experience on Facebook.

“Walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up,” he said.

According to the disaster agency officials, Bali’s international airport suffered damage in two of its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normalancy.

In 2014, an earthquake of 9.3-magnitude undersea off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a catastrophic tsunami which killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, out of which 168,000 were from Indonesia.