Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Indonesia’s Lombok
Julie Bishop says there are no reports of Australians among the 91 people who have died following an Indonesian earthquake.
Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop says there are no reports of Australians among the 91 people who have died following a magnitude 7 quake that shook the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok, Bali and Gili chain last night.
Australian home minister Peter Dutton, leading a delegation of Australian security agency chiefs including the AFP police commissioner, were on Lombok for a regional counter terrorism meeting when the quake hit at 645pm local time Sunday night.
They were among tens of thousands of people across the popular tourist islands who were forced to flee houses and buildings, many of which were flattened in the quake - the second powerful trembler to hit Lombok in a week.
Some 17 people were killed in last week’s 6.4 magnitude quake and hundreds more stranded on popular hiking trails on Lombok’s Mount Rinjani volcano by landslides.
But the latest quake, which hit just north of the island at a depth of only 10km and was felt as far away as East Java,has caused far more casualties and more widespread damage.
Indonesian soldiers flew into Lombok this morning with three planes full of emergency and medical supplies as well as medical personnel.
Emergency response agencies were also co-ordinating evacuations of the Gili island chain just off Lombok where hundreds of people fled to higher ground as the quake triggered a brief tsunami warning.
Australian emergency supplies pre-positioned in Java - including tents and food - were being transported to effected areas this morning.
Australian consular officials were also on Lombok - both at the airport and at the popular tourist resort area of Sengigi - and were providing assistance to both Australian and Canadian citizens, Ms Bishop said.
“We are assessing how many Australians are there. We have staff on the ground to make sure we can contact any Australians and indeed Canadians who might need support. At this stage here are no reports of Australian casualties or serious injury.”
Mr Dutton and his delegation were now safely in Bali. They were evacuated this morning after spending the night in Lombok airport, she added.
Urgent need for medical supplies: authorities
Lombok authorities say they urgently need more emergency and medical supplies as search and rescue teams attempt to reach stricken communities cut off by last night’s powerful magnitude 7 quake which has killed 91 people and displaced thousands more across the popular Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok, Bali and the Gili chains.
Iwan Asmara, head of North Lombok disaster mitigation agency, said he suspected the death toll would rise through the day as emergency workers reached areas cut off by quake damage.
“We plan to conduct search and rescue operation today. The quake happened at night and electricity is still out. There are some cellular network but there are villages which still has no coverage because of the quake,” he said.
“We will map out the areas impacted (but) the problem right now is access. Some roads were damaged badly and at least one bridge is completely destroyed.”
Mr Iwan said so far all those killed were locals.
“Tourists stay at well built structures and so far buildings with most damage have been houses belonging to locals. I don’t know about those injured. There might be several tourists among the injured but we have to check.”
On Mount Rinjani, the island’s volcano which is popular with hikers, most of those in the trial had already been evacuated, though some who were camped overnight on the volcano were expected to head down to checkpoints today.
Search and rescue teams were deployed to ensure everyone made t safely off the mountain, after more than 500 hikers were trapped by landslides caused by last week’s 6.4 magnitude quake.
“We don't know exactly how many evacuation points there are because people were just scrambling to a safe place last night,” Mr Iwan said. “We will try to reach them and get them to our official evacuation sites so we can check their health and distribute aid more easily.
“We have supplies from the last quake but of course we need more tents, food supply, clean water, blankets, diapers, medical supplies and so on.
Many of those injured were taken to the North Lombok public hospital but people with more severe injuries were taken to Mataram which have better equipment.
Dutton ‘lucky to get out’
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says he was “very lucky” to escape a deadly earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok unharmed that has killed at least 82 people.
The senior MP was dining at a restaurant on the 12th floor of a hotel when the magnitude-7 quake struck at around 6.46pm (8.26pm AEST) last night.
“We were knocked certainly to the floor,” he told Sydney radio 2GB. “It was a pretty violent shaking and swaying of the building. It went on for ... a minute or so.
“The main thing is all the Australian delegation is safe and well.”
Mr Dutton said parts of the building were falling down and large cracks appeared on the facade. “We were pretty lucky to get out,” he said.
“There was certainly a lot of structural damage to the building. Everyone’s a bit shaken but all well.”
The cabinet minister is in Indonesia for a regional counter-terrorism conference with a delegation from Australian, including the Australian Federal Police commissioner.
Mr Dutton and the Australian delegation were evacuated along with government ministers and officials from eight other countries including Singapore, New Zealand, the Philippines and Malaysia. The group was unable to return to the hotel but had some luggage collected by local security guards.
Mr Dutton, who is heading to Bali for another summit, said it was a “terrible day” for Indonesia. He said serious structural damage to his hotel in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara, was obvious from the outside with deep cracks running up and down the building.
“We weren’t right at the epicentre but it was a pretty violent shaking and swaying of the building.
“It was clearly not an explosion but a v v violent shake. Things swaying things falling down. Concrete in stairwell. Windows out and doors.”
The massive earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, hit the Indonesian tourist islands of Lombok, Bali and the Gili chain, just one week after another quake killed 17 people and left hundreds of hikers stranded on Lombok’s Mount Rinjani.
The shallow earthquake, which struck north east of Lombok at a depth of just 10km, briefly triggered a tsunami warning which was lifted less than an hour later but sparked widespread panic across the islands, with residents and tourists running into the street.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the quake strongly jolted Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province in Lombok.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is already in Bali - where the quake also caused panic and damage to buildings including shopping malls and a hospital - for the first day of the Bali Process meeting today on Human Trafficking, people smuggling and transnational crime.
Mr Dutton tweeted around 10.30pm (12.30am AEST): “Australian delegation is safe and is evacuated from hotel. Very grateful to Indonesian police and authorities and the AFP. We are not yet aware of the extent of the damage, but thoughts and prayers are with those impacted.”
In Bali also authorities have reported widespread damage with at least three shopping malls and hundreds of temples on the Hindu-majority island effected.
Video taken in Bali at the time the quake hit shows people screaming and running in panic from houses with vehicles rocking, while on Lombok soldiers and other rescuers carried injured on stretchers and carpets to an evacuation centre.
Neandan Kantun, a tourist villa manager from North Lombok’s Tanjung district told The Australian this morning that the earthquake had flattened homes _ including his own _ across the district _ and that thousands of people had fled for higher ground when it struck at 6.45pm local time.
“My family is all safe but all the houses in our village and many in the district have been broken,” he said.
“We all ran outside and everybody went to the top of the mountain because our places are close to the sea and we were scared of a tsunami. Now we are just waiting for a tent and emergency supplies but the road from Sengigi to here is broken so we don’t know how long it will be.”
“Everyone is just sitting outside now. No one could sleep last night because we are all scared.
“Every second, every minute, everywhere there are still quakes. Even now we are still feeling more quakes,” he said. This morning there has been many.” Everybody’s scared.”
Australian delegation is safe and is evacuated from hotel. Very grateful to Indonesian police and authorities and the AFP. We are not yet aware of the extent of the damage, but thoughts and prayers are with those impacted.
— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) August 5, 2018
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia would offer assistance to Indonesia.
“I’ll be in touch with President Widodo today and we will offer all assistance that is available,” he told ABC radio.
“We always reach out and assist our neighbours when natural disaster strikes.”
Mr Turnbull said he was not aware of any Australian casualties at this stage.
“Obviously Australians have been affected, they felt the shock, including Minister Peter Dutton who is at a counter-terrorism conference in Lombok, but at this stage I don’t have any reports on Australians being injured, but there are a lot of Australians in Indonesia at any time, so ... our consular services will be doing everything they can to ascertain the safety of Australians.”
There were reports of houses razed to the ground in West Lombok and North Lombok, near the epicentre of the quake, as well as extensive damage to at least one shopping mall in Bali and some minor damage to the Bali airport. Large parts of Lombok were still in darkness last night after the quake caused widespread blackouts.
North Lombok district chief Najmul Akhyar told MetroTV at least three people had been killed, but that number has since risen to 82.
Singapore’s Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said his delegation was safe though he had been told there were casualties among other guests.
“I was in my room, 10th floor, working on my laptop. Suddenly the room shook violently, walls cracked, it was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams,” Mr Shanmugam said in a Facebook post Sunday evening.
An Indonesian Security Ministry official who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity said the quake hit as visiting dignitaries were sitting down to a formal reception dinner.
“At first the quake was mild and we tried to ignore it but it kept getting stronger and stronger,” he told The Australian.
Women egged in anti-Semitic attack at Bondi Beach
Three men allegedly set upon a number of women on Saturday night in Sydney's east, throwing eggs at them, with police believing they were targeted because of the clothes they were wearing.
‘Hunted down and locked up’: PM condemns latest anti-Semitic attack
Anthony Albanese has condemned a spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes which has culminated in the discovery of a caravan packed with explosives outside Sydney, declaring the perpetrators 'would not succeed' creating hate and division.