Strong aftershock rocks quake-battered Indonesian island

BANGSAL, Indonesia — A strong aftershock has shaken the Indonesian island of Lombok, where tens of thousands of people are homeless after a powerful earthquake on Sunday. Indonesia’s geological agency said the quake Thursday afternoon had a magnitude of 6.2 and was shallow, at a depth of 12 kilometers, and centered in the northwest of the island. It said it didn’t have the potential to cause a tsunami.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 5.9.

It was the third big quake to hit Lombok in little over a week. Buildings still standing on the island were been weakened by Sunday’s 7.0 quake that killed at least 131 people and a 6.4 quake on July 29 that killed 16.

One witness told the Reuters news agency Thursday’s temblor sent panicking people into the streets and caused buildings to crumble.

BEAWIHARTA / REUTERS

The Indonesian Red Cross said Thursday it’s focusing its Lombok earthquake relief efforts on an estimated 20,000 people in remote areas in the north of the island where aid still hasn’t reached.

Spokesman Arifin Hadi said the tens of thousands people left homeless by Sunday’s magnitude 7.0 quake need clean water and tarpaulins most of all. He said the agency has sent 20 water trucks to five remote areas, including one village of about 1,200 households.

He said, “People are always saying they need water and tarps.” He also said they’re continuing to look for people with untreated injuries.

While the National Disaster Mitigation Agency was putting the death toll from Thursday’s shaker at a minimum of 131, other agencies were giving higher much higher figures. The disaster agency said the higher figures are unverified and hadn’t been cross-checked for duplication.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho has said several times that the number of deaths will increase. An interagency meeting will be held Thursday to compare information, Nugroho said.

Meanwhile, Nyoman Sidekarya, chief of the provincial search and rescue agency that covers Lombok, told The Associated Press Thursday that the death toll from the quake that struck Sunday had risen to 227.