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Major earthquake hits Indonesia’s Lombok island

REPORTS suggest the powerful earthquake that forced thousands to flee the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok has now left a reported 142 people dead and hundreds seriously injured.

Cindy Wockner and Komang Erviani and AP
10 min read
August 7, 2018 - 4:55AM
News Corp Australia Network
Major earthquake hits Indonesian island

A POWERFUL earthquake flattened houses and toppled bridges on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, that killed a reported 142 people and shaken neighbouring Bali, as authorities said that rescuers still hadn’t reached some devastated areas and the death toll would climb.

It was the second deadly quake to hit Lombok in a week.

A July 29 quake killed 16 people and damaged hundreds of houses, some of which collapsed in Sunday evening’s magnitude 7.0 temblor, killing those inside.

Up to 2000 tourists on the nearby Gili Islands were evacuated by emergency services after the jetty was damaged.

An Indonesian man inspects the damage in a village from a major earthquake in Kayangan on Lombok. Picture: AP
An Indonesian man inspects the damage in a village from a major earthquake in Kayangan on Lombok. Picture: AP

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told a press conference that damage was “massive” in northern Lombok. In several districts, more than half the homes were destroyed or severely damaged. The ruins of a mosque that collapsed in Lading-Lading village while people prayed inside was being pulled apart by a backhoe in search of victims. Some areas still hadn’t been reached as of midafternoon, with rescuers battling collapsed bridges, electricity and communication blackouts and damaged roads blocked with debris.

A villager carries his belonging from the ruin of his house in North Lombok. Picture: AP
A villager carries his belonging from the ruin of his house in North Lombok. Picture: AP

Nugroho said the death toll had risen, after warning earlier that it would “definitely increase.” More than 230 people were seriously injured. Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged and 20,000 people were in temporary shelters.

Villagers salvage usable items from homes destroyed in an earthquake in North Lombok. Picture: AP
Villagers salvage usable items from homes destroyed in an earthquake in North Lombok. Picture: AP
An injured Italian tourist (centre R) is shaded by another as they wait for an ambulance after locals and tourists were evacuated from the Gili islands north of Lombok. Picture: AP
An injured Italian tourist (centre R) is shaded by another as they wait for an ambulance after locals and tourists were evacuated from the Gili islands north of Lombok. Picture: AP

The quake, measured at magnitude 7.0 by Indonesian authorities and 6.9 by the US Geological Survey, struck at a shallow depth of 10.5 kilometres in the northern part of Lombok. Shallow quakes tend to cause more damage than deeper ones.

“We were sitting there having dinner at about 7 o’clock last night, we just felt a really big sort of shaking and the lights went off and everyone just ran,” Australian tourist Kim Liebelt said as he waited with other travellers for a flight out at Lombok’s international airport.

Houses damaged by the deadly earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia. Picture: AP
Houses damaged by the deadly earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia. Picture: AP
The powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing a number of people and shaking neighboring Bali. Picture: AP
The powerful earthquake struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing a number of people and shaking neighboring Bali. Picture: AP
An injured foreign tourist receives medical attention at a makeshift unit set up outside the Moh. Ruslan hospital in Mataram. Picture: AFP
An injured foreign tourist receives medical attention at a makeshift unit set up outside the Moh. Ruslan hospital in Mataram. Picture: AFP

The quake, which struck at 6.46pm (8.46pm AEST) on Sunday evening, caused panic across Lombok and was felt in Bali, where buildings swayed and damage was done. At Bali airport, ceiling panels fell from the ceiling and the roof of a shopping centre in Denpasar crumbled. Two locals were killed in Bali.

Lombok locals fled from their homes in panic, already traumatised by last week’s quake.

Most of the victims were struck by collapsing buildings. All were Indonesian, with no reports of tourist deaths.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson, said that by 10pm there had been a total of 47 smaller earthquakes in the area, highlighting fears another bigger quake may be on the way.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, in Bali to attend the Bali Process meetings on people smuggling and transnational crime, said she was on a plane at the time the quake struck.

“I extend our deepest sympathies to the people of Indonesia and particularly those who have been directly affected by this natural disaster,” Ms Bishop said.

She Australian Consular staff were on the ground in Lombok to assist Australian tourists there but so far there were no reports of Australian deaths or casualties.

“Australians love Indonesia and they love to Bali and Lombok and I am sure they will continue to do so,” Ms Bishop said.

Indonesian security forces and emergency workers raced to rescue survivors. Picture: AFP
Indonesian security forces and emergency workers raced to rescue survivors. Picture: AFP
Medical professionals treated the injured. Picture: AFP
Medical professionals treated the injured. Picture: AFP

Indonesia Correspondent for ABC Australia David Lipson said he is in contact with at least one Australian that is stranded.

He is hearing reports of “bodies in the streets on Gili Islands”, near the coast of northwest Lombok Island.

Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho has posted images of evacuations in the Gili islands, where there are an estimated 1000 domestic and foreign tourists.

Both airports in Lombok are reported to be open and operating.

But tourists have begun to leave the island, some in bath robes, Lipson said in a post on Twitter.

Rachel Jean, from Perth, said she has not heard from her parents who were supposed to be on the Gili islands.

She put out an appeal for information on Twitter.

The latest quake, which triggered a brief tsunami warning, damaged buildings as far away as Bali’s Denpasar, including a department store and the airport terminal, authorities say.

A photo taken by Lipson shows ceiling panels were shaken loose.

Video taken at a Bali hotel shows terrified guests rushing outside for safety.

Rescue officials said much of the damage had hit Lombok’s main city of Mataram, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island.

Nugroho described the damage on the north of the island as “massive”.

Based on reports from West Nusa Tenggara’s disaster mitigation agency, 65 people died in North Lombok, nine in West Lombok, two in Central Lombok, four in Mataram, and two in East Lombok. Most of the victims died because they were hit by collapsing buildings.

Among the dead are a one-year-old and a 72-year-old, according to officials.

Videos posted on social media captures the panic that gripped locals as the earthquake hit.

AUSSIES: ‘WE WERE KNOCKED TO THE FLOOR’

Sydney man Jon-Paul Kennedy was asleep in his mum’s villa when it collapsed around him.

He escaped without injury and made a panicked dash to the local hospital where his terminally ill mother is being treated, but both of them ended up in the street - his mum still in her bed - after the facility was evacuated.

“We were knocked certainly to the floor,” he told Sydney radio 2GB today.

“It was a pretty violent shaking and swaying of the building. We were pretty lucky to get out. There was certainly a lot of structural damage to the building.”

For Mr Kennedy and his sick mother, it was the second terrifying quake experience in less than a fortnight.

The pair rode out Lombok’s earlier, slightly weaker earthquake on July 29 but he says the latest tremblor was much more dramatic.

“I was sleeping at mum’s villa ... it started shaking and walls collapsing around me, furniture falling, this was in the dark as there was no electricity,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I managed to run for my life ... I am with mum on the street outside hospital waiting to get back into the room as we have been evacuated.”

Hobart woman Jodie Epper, who is volunteering on Lombok with her husband and son as part of the Australian Volunteer Program, said she was putting her son to bed when the tremor hit.

“We went out into the yard, the ground was still shaking very badly,” she told the ABC.

“I saw a few particularly older women getting carried, they’d been injured by rock falling and then of course a tsunami alert happened and there was a race to get to the top of a hill. Everyone was very scared,” she said.

Ms Epper said there are broken temples, broken walls and broken houses everywhere in her village.

“We are just going down our small alleyway to our house and we are climbing over the rubble to get in there.”

Buildings and houses that were already damaged because of last week’s earthquake collapsed.

Many injured victims are being treated outside community health centres and hospitals because the buildings are damaged.

A man is wheeled passed a damaged wall to a makeshift ward. Picture: AFP
A man is wheeled passed a damaged wall to a makeshift ward. Picture: AFP

In a statement this morning, the BNPB (national disaster mitigation agency) said a team from Jakarta had arrived in North Lombok to assist the local government.

The Indonesian army will bring medical supplies, tents, medical team to Lombok.

A major focus for the day will be to find and rescue people affected by the quake.

Earlier search and rescue efforts were hampered because of power and communication blackouts.

Other earthquakes have also hit the area. As of 10pm on Sunday (local time), there had been 47 earthquakes with smaller intensity.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned that there is a small possibility that there will be another stronger earthquake.

Electricity was knocked out in several parts of the city and patients were evacuated from the main hospital, witnesses and officials said.

Pictures showed patients lying on their beds outside the clinic while doctors in blue scrubs attended to them.

Bikes are seen covered in debris at a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar. Picture: AFP
Bikes are seen covered in debris at a mall in Bali's capital Denpasar. Picture: AFP

Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said most of the damaged buildings in the city were built with substandard construction materials.

Officials issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but it was later cancelled.

Seawater up to 13cm deep poured into two villages, Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.

Australia’s Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton, who is in Lombok for a counter-terrorism meeting, told Fairfax Mediathat the quake “was powerful enough to put us on the floor”.

Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was caught up in the carnage. Picture: AAP.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was caught up in the carnage. Picture: AAP.

“We were up on the 12th floor, the lights went out and we were able to evacuate,” Mr Dutton told the Australian media outlet.

“I think we were pretty lucky in the end.”

He has since tweeted to say he and other members of the Australian delegation visiting Lombok are safe.

The Sub Regional Meeting on Counter Terrorism that was scheduled to be opened in Lombok this morning has been postponed.

“All delegates that were to participate in the meeting are safe. And because of the earthquake, we decided to delay the sub regional meeting that will discuss terrorism. We ask all delegates to return back to their country,” Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto said in Lombok last night.

The quake caused light damage as far away as the Javanese city of Bandung, some 955km from Mataram, but was felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali.

One local tweeted pictures of destruction at a shopping centre in Kuta.

Tweeting from Australia, Diane Burns said her son, daughter-in-law and grandson fled up a mountain to wait out tsunami warnings after their home “collapsed” and their car was damaged.

Ms Burns said her family was safe and was waiting for the all-clear to return to what’s left of their home at Senggigi in northwest Lombok.

Australian tourist Lucy Sarah Rice is on holiday in Canggu, on the neighbouring island of Bali, and told Fairfax she felt the ground begin to shake while eating dinner with friends.

“I had one foot on the ground and one foot on a chair and shaking began to increase. Then we realised the earth was moving. Across the road, at a massage parlour, we saw people run out onto the street in towels and sarongs, and that’s when we moved,” Ms Rice said.

“We stood in the middle of the road and watched the light posts shaking. It went for quite a while, increasing and peaking and then petering out again.”

Images from Bali after an earthquake hit Lombok. Picture: Twitter.
Images from Bali after an earthquake hit Lombok. Picture: Twitter.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the Nine Network this morning that, at this stage, authorities had no reports of Australians being injured in the quake.

He added: “But as we have heard, its effects have been felt around Indonesia, including in Bali, where so many thousands of Australians will be right now.”

He will be contacting his Indonesian counterpart today to offer Australia’s assistance for disaster relief efforts.

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the Australian Consulate-General in Bali was working closely with local authorities to provide consular assistance to affected Australians.

“No Australians are currently known to have been seriously injured or killed,” he said.

The spokesman said the Australian Government had been providing assistance through the Indonesian Red Cross since a previous earthquake in Lombok on July 29 and would reassess its assistance in light of the latest earthquake.

Indonesian soldiers tend to the injured. Picture: AP.
Indonesian soldiers tend to the injured. Picture: AP.

CELEBS, POLITICIANS CAUGHT IN QUAKE

Australian actress Teresa Palmer is among a number of celebrities holidaying on Bali who tweeted about the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck on nearby Lombok island.

Palmer said she felt the earthquake from where she was staying in a treehouse in Bali.

She tweeted: “We felt it here in Ubud and it was VIOLENT. We are staying in a treehouse and it was swaying like crazy. Very scary. Stay safe everyone.”

She added: “It was very scary and we are in Bali, I can’t imagine how it must’ve felt to those closer to Lombok. Thinking of everyone affected.”

American model and television presenter Chrissy Teigen posted a series of brief updates on her Twitter profile.

The Lip Sync Battle host initially wrote: “Oh my god. Bali. Trembling. So long.”, before adding “Phewwwwww”, indicating that the tremors had stopped.

Teigen, 32, is with her husband, singer John Legend, and their two young children Luna and Miles.

The former Sports Illustrated model revealed the house in which they are staying is elevated from the ground, which added to the terrifying experience.

Teigen wrote: “Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride. 15 solid seconds of ‘holy s*** this is happening.”

Model Chrissy Teigen in Bali days before the earthquake hit the island.
Model Chrissy Teigen in Bali days before the earthquake hit the island.

“I very calmly walked outside saying clutching baby saying ‘I’m naked. I’m naked. I’m naked’. Like a naked zombie.”

Teigen then confirmed that aftershocks from the quake had started to hit the area.

She wrote: “I’m either still trembling or these little quakes won’t stop. I’m trying to be normal here!”.

Tourists stand on the street after being evacuated from their hotel in Bali's capital Denpasar. Picture: AFP.
Tourists stand on the street after being evacuated from their hotel in Bali's capital Denpasar. Picture: AFP.

Take That star Gary Barlow is also on holiday in Bali, and posted a message on Twitter assuring fans that he was fine.

The latest quake recorded a magnitude of seven and struck just 10km underground. Picture: Twitter.
The latest quake recorded a magnitude of seven and struck just 10km underground. Picture: Twitter.

‘IMPOSSIBLE TO STAND UP’

Singapore’s Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was in Lombok for a security conference when the earthquake struck, described on Facebook how his hotel room on the 10th floor shook violently.

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

A man walks inside a cathedral where debris has fallen after an earthquake struck Bali. Picture: AP.
A man walks inside a cathedral where debris has fallen after an earthquake struck Bali. Picture: AP.

Witnesses described how people could be heard screaming as locals and tourists ran onto the road.

Agung Widodo, a resident of Bali’s main town of Denpasar, said he felt two strong tremors.

“The first one lasted quite a while, the second one was only about two-to-five seconds. The first one was the bigger one,” he told AFP.

Tourists and hotel staff stand on the street after being evacuated from their hotels. Picture: AFP
Tourists and hotel staff stand on the street after being evacuated from their hotels. Picture: AFP

Bali’s international airport suffered damage to its terminal but the runway was unaffected and operations had returned to normal, disaster agency officials said.

Facilities at Lombok’s main airport were also unaffected, although passengers were briefly evacuated from the main terminal.

Early reports suggest the quake wrecked buildings in several districts across Bali.

Residents of Lombok’s main city Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings. Picture: Twitter.
Residents of Lombok’s main city Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings. Picture: Twitter.

Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

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