Lombok earthquake in pictures: Britons evacuate Indonesia’s coast
BRITISH tourists are evacuating islands off Indonesia’s coast, after the region was hit by a succession of powerful quakes.
Lombok earthquake: Hundreds of tourists evacuated
Popular tourist hotspots in Lombok and Bali were rattled by a 5.2 magnitude tremor on Monday evening, only a day after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake killed at least 98 people and injuring hundreds more.
Monday’s tremors are said to have woken residents and caused holiday makers to flee from their hotels.
And locals are said to have led tourists to higher ground following warnings of a tsunami.
Dramatic pictures show rescuers frantically searching for survivors and desperately using diggers to clear through rubble from thousands of damaged homes.
There were lots of injuries and pain on the island from buildings that had collapsed
And other images show exhausted tourists sprawled on the floor of Praya Lombok International Airport as they wait for flights homes.
Staff are also seen tending to the wounded from a makeshift hospital in the shade of trees and tents after the main hospital in the town of Tanjung was severely damaged.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said it expected the death toll to rise once the rubble of more than 13,000 destroyed houses was cleared.
Speaking from a beach as he awaited evacuation, teacher James Kelsall, 28, said: “There were lots of injuries and pain on the island from buildings that had collapsed on to people.
“The most terrifying part was the tsunami warning that followed. All the locals were frantically running and screaming, putting on lifejackets. We followed them up to higher ground, which was a steep, uneven climb to the top of a hill in darkness.”
The tragedy comes just a week after Lombok was hit by the first of the quake, of 6.4 magnitude, on Sunday, July 29, which killed 17 people.