An operation was underway on Tuesday to evacuate thousands of tourists who were stranded after a deadly earthquake jolted Indonesia's Lombok Island killing 98 people and injuring over 200 others. A video released by authorities showed hundreds of people, many believed to be foreign tourists, crammed onto a beach on the island of Gili Trawangan as evacuation measures got underway, reports CNN.
Two earthquakes shook the country in one week with the latest on Sunday, Aug 5, at 6.9 magnitude. Indonesia was already hit by an earthquake on July 29 at 6.2 magnitude which killed 17 people.
The island, famous for its white sandy beaches and clear waters, is located near the epicentre of the 6.9 magnitude quake on Lombok that struck on Sunday, Aug 5, evening. Rescue efforts earlier were hampered by shallow waters, but rising sea waters have paved the way for nine ships to dock on Gili island.
So far, up to 2,700 tourists have been moved from the Gili Island. Lombok's airport is now open round the clock and has significantly increased its flight schedule. The epicenter of the quake was in northern Lombok, a more residential, less developed part of the island. The majority of Lombok's tourist resorts are on the island's southern coast.
An estimated 20,000 people have been displaced by the massive earthquake. Rescue teams continued searching under the debris from collapsed buildings for more survivors, reports Efe news.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesperson of the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), said the teams rescued a survivor from a collapsed mosque in northern Lombok, the most affected area where 72 people were found dead. The BNPD went on to say that the death toll might rise after the rubble of 13,000 houses were cleared. The earthquake was also felt in neighboring Bali. More than 100 aftershocks continued to rattle the region after the main quake.
(Article written with inputs from IANS)
