At least ten dead, 40 hurt in Lombok quake

AT LEAST 10 people have died and dozens of others injured after a powerful 6.4 magnitude quake hit Indonesia’s holiday island of Lombok.

The victims are from the northern and eastern side of the island which is popular with foreign tourists.

Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the fatalities were caused by falling slabs of concrete.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 6.47am on Sunday and was followed less than an hour later by an aftershock of magnitude 5.4 in the same area.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the disaster mitigation agency spokesman, posted on Twitter pictures of houses with collapsed roofs and walls.

The quake may have also impacted Mount Rinjani national park, a popular trekking destination.

“Rinjani mountain climbing is closed temporarily because there are indication of landslide around the mountain,” Nugroho said in a statement.

Australian man Jon-Paul Kennedy was sleeping next to his terminally ill mother in an Indonesian hospital when the “terrifying” earthquake rocked the building.

Mr Kennedy had flown to Lombok where his terminally ill 72-year-old mother, Lu Lu, lives. The pair were sleeping in the Risa Sentra Medika Hospital when the first quake struck.

“There was silence and then a second quake hit, which seemed shorter but more powerful,” he said.

“We were all evacuated out on the street in front of the hospital. Absolutely terrifying.”

Mr Kennedy said he and his mother were moved into emergency rooms “which are full of people and very easy to get out if something goes wrong”.

“There are still patients on the street,” he added.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said no Australians were known to have been directly affected.

Local news Metro TV reported that people were still sleeping when the first quake hit and they quickly fled their houses in panic. Most of the people were still waiting outside their houses in fear of aftershocks, Metro TV said.

Many houses were damaged in the quake.

“We jumped out of our beds to avoid anything falling on our heads,” said Jean- Paul Volckaert who was woken by the quake while sleeping in the Puncak Hotel near Senggigi on Lombok.

“I’ve been walking around but so far there is no damage. We were very surprised as the water in the pools was swaying like a wild sea. There were waves in the pools but only for 20-to-30 seconds,” he told Reuters via telephone.

The epicenter's location was revised 50km north-east of the island's main city of Mataram. The tremor was only 7km, a shallow depth that would have amplified its effect.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, the European quake agency, put the magnitude at 6.5.

The earthquake was on land and did not trigger any waves or tsunami.

Lombok is the next island east of Bali.