Earthquake leaves 90 dead in Indonesia

MATARAM TENGGARA: A major earthquake on the Indonesian holiday island of Lombok killed at least 90 people and injured several, officials said on Sunday, damaging homes and triggering panic among tourists and locals.

The powerful quake was also felt on the neighbouring island of Bali, one of Indonesia's most popular attractions, where people ran onto the streets in terror.

The shallow seven-magnitude tremor struck just 10 kilometres underground, according to the US Geological Survey, followed by further secondary quakes and nearly two dozen aftershocks.

It was the second quake to hit Lombok, whose beaches and hiking trails draw holidaymakers from around the world, in a week.

Rescue officials said much of the damage had hit Lombok's main city of Mataram.

Agung Pramuja, a senior official with the Mataram search and rescue agency, said the death toll had climbed to 90.

Residents of the city described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling to get out of buildings.

"Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," Iman, who like many Indonesians has one name, said. 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.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency, said most of the damaged buildings in the city were built with substandard construction materials.

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. Officials issued a tsunami warning, which was later cancelled, but seawater poured into two villages, senior disaster agency official Dwikorita Karnawati told local TV.

The quake caused light damage as far away as the Javanese city of Bandung, some 955 kilometres from Mataram, but was felt strongly on the neighbouring resort island of Bali. People could be heard screaming as locals and tourists ran onto the road.