Earthquake strikes Indonesian holiday island Lombok

The 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Lombok on Sunday. It was the second deadly quake in a week to hit Lombok, after a July 29 quake killed 16 people and damaged hundreds of houses, some of which collapsed on Sunday.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho the damage in the north of Lombok was "massive." Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged and 20,000 people were in temporary shelters. "There are challenges: the roads were damaged, three bridges were also damaged, some locations are difficult to reach and we don't have enough personnel," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Many of the victims were treated outdoors due to hospitals being damaged and efforts were further hampered as the quake caused blackouts in several areas of Lombok's main city of Mataram. Indonesia's location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, makes it prone to earthquakes.

Tourism, one of Indonesia's most important revenue avenues, was expected to take a hit as hundreds of holidaymakers were ordered to evacuate Lombok's neighboring Gili islands. Authorities said at least one person, an Indonesian, was killed on the popular trio of holiday islands, while another tourist died on the nearby island of Bali.

Hundreds of people crammed onto a beach in the Gili islands as they waited to be taken to safety. Four agencies, including the military and the national search and rescue agency, were involved in the evacuation. "We cannot evacuate all of them all at once because we don't have enough capacity on the boats," Muhammad Faozal, head of West Nusa Tenggara's tourism agency, said.