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Indonesia's Lombok island hit by 6.9 magnitude earthquake hours after earlier quake

One person suffered a fatal heart attack during major tremor near active volcano

Peter Stubley
Sunday 19 August 2018 17:20 BST
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Lombok earthquake: 6.3-magnitude tremor rocks Indonesian island just two weeks after quakes killed 460

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Lombok in Indonesia has been hit by another series of earthquakes - including a major 6.9 magnitude quake - which left one person dead and caused others to run out into the streets in panic.

The latest tremors arrived two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed 460 people on the island and caused damage worth more than 5 trillion rupiah (£268 million).

Video shot by the Indonesian Red Cross showed huge clouds of dust billowing from landslides on the slopes of Mount Rinjani in the northeast.

Power outages were reported to have left parts of Lombok in "pitch black conditions".

"I was in a restaurant when the shaking started. The lights went out, they are still out. Everyone is still outside, not going back in," said Teddy Aditya, an official at Indonesia's search and rescue agency in Lombok's capital.

"We are urging the public not to panic and to stay away from buildings and big trees. We are also urging them not to believe hoaxes and false information."

One person died from a heart attack during the first major quake, of 6.3-magnitude, at around 1pm local time on Sunday, and nearly 100 houses near the epicentre were severely damaged, according to the national disaster management agency.

It was followed nine hours later by another major earthquake of magnitude 6.9 and least two further aftershocks of magnitude 5.9 and 5.5.

The most powerful quakes were felt as far away as Bali, where foreign tourists rushed out of buildings in fear they might collapse, according to disaster agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

"Electric PLN outages throughout Lombok," Mr Nugroho tweeted. "Pitch black conditions. East Lombok, Lombok, West Sumbawa and the North felt the shocks of earthquake."

Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago that straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The quake on 5 August damaged tens of thousands of homes and caused more than 350,000 people to flee their homes. Many remain camped out in tents and makeshift structures in open fields.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press.

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