Shropshire Star

Landslides and damage to buildings reported after fresh Indonesia quake

The island of Lombok was jolted again two weeks after an earthquake claimed 460 lives.

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Indonesia Earthquake

A strong earthquake has jolted the Indonesian island of Lombok, causing landslides on Mount Rinjani and damaging buildings, as it tries to recover from a quake earlier this month that killed 460 people.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake,  centred in the north east of the tourist island, at magnitude 6.3 and a depth of four miles.

It was felt on the neighbouring island of Bali and was preceded a few minutes earlier by a magnitude 5.4 quake, also in Lombok’s north east.

A reporter on Lombok said the tremor caused landslides on the slopes of Rinjani and panic in villages.

Indonesia Earthquake
Women stand in a tent at a temporary shelter after the original quake (Firdia Lisnawati/AP)

Video shot by the Indonesian Red Cross showed huge clouds of dust billowing from the mountain’s slopes.

The shaking toppled motorcycles and there was damage to buildings in Sembalun subdistrict, including a community hall that collapsed.

It had sustained damage in earlier quakes, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Homes and a mosque were also damaged, he said.

He said so far there have been no reports of injuries or fatalities but information is still being collected.

A magnitude 7.0 quake on August 5 killed 460 people, damaged tens of thousands of homes and displaced several hundred thousand people on Lombok.

Mount Rinjani has been closed to visitors following a July earthquake that killed 16 people, triggered landslides and stranded hundreds of tourists on the mountain, an active volcano.

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

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