A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits the Indonesian island of Lombok, prompting tsunami warnings.
However, Sri Lanka will not be affected by this earthquake, stated the Disaster Management Center.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off the north coast of Indonesia’s island of Lombok on Sunday (Aug 5), the Indonesian Meteorological Agency said.
The quake, which occurred at a depth of 15 km, prompted a tsunami warning.
Officials have urged people to move away from the ocean.
“Please go to a place with higher ground, while remaining calm and not panicking,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, told local TV.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, said Reuters.
Some of those affected by the earthquake took to Twitter to describe the ordeal, with one user claiming it was the “strongest quake” they had felt in years.
Residents in Lombok’s main city Mataram described a strong jolt that sent people scrambling out of buildings.
“Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking,” Iman, a local resident in Mataram, told AFP.
Holidaymakers in Bali reportedly felt the effects of the 7.0-magnitude quake, including supermodel Chrissy Teigen who is there on holiday with her husband John Legend.
“So many aftershocks,” she tweeted on Sunday.
People were also seen running out of houses, hotels and restaurants.
“All the hotel guests were running so I did too. People filled the streets,” said Michelle Lindsay, an Australian tourist.
“A lot of officials were urging people not to panic.”
Other witnesses said the quake got stronger over several seconds and rattled windows and doors.
This comes a week after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the island, leaving at least 17 people dead and hundreds injured.
It triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes.
Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
Source: CNA
-Agencies
