The Indonesian island of Lombok was shaken by a third big earthquake in little more than a week on Thursday as an official said the death toll from an earlier quake had topped 220.
The strong aftershock, measured at magnitude 5.9 by the US Geological Survey, caused panic and damage. It was centered in the northwest of the island and didn’t have the potential to cause a tsunami, Indonesia’s geological agency said.
Videos showed rubble strewn across streets and clouds of dust enveloping buildings. In northern Lombok, some people leaped from their vehicles on traffic jammed roads while an elderly woman standing in the back of a pickup truck wailed “God is Great”. The aftershock had caused more “trauma”, said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Nyoman Sidekarya, chief of the provincial search and rescue agency that covers Lombok, told The Associated Press that the death toll from Sunday’s magnitude 7.0 quake is now 227.
