Indonesia struck by another large earthquake as death toll passes 300

More buildings collapse in powerful aftershock

A strong aftershock has rattled the Indonesian island of Lombok, where tens of thousands of people are homeless after a powerful earthquake struck on Sunday.

Witnesses said people ran out onto roads in panic and buildings collapsed.

Indonesia’s geological agency said the quake had a magnitude of 6.2 and was shallow, with a depth of 12km, and centred on the northwest of the island.

The agency said the aftershock did not have the potential to cause a tsunami.

“Evacuees ... ran out of houses when they felt the strong shake of the 6.2-magnitude quake ... People are still traumatised. Some buildings were damaged further because of this quake,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, said on Twitter.

The US Geological Survey measured the aftershock at magnitude 5.9.

It was the third big quake to hit Lombok in little over a week.

The buildings still standing on the island were weakened after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Sunday and a 6.4 quake on 29 July.

The official death toll from Sunday’s quake stood at 131 on Wednesday but a government-run news agency put the figure at 347.

Thousands have been left homeless on Lombok and in desperate need of clean water, food, medicine and shelter.

Officials said around three-quarters of Lombok’s rural north lost electricity after the initial earthquake, although power had since been restored in most areas.

Aid workers have found some hamlets hard to reach because bridges and roads were torn up by the disaster.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it was focusing relief efforts on an estimated 20,000 people in remote areas in the north of the island which has still not been reached by aid.

Spokesman Arifin Hadi said the tens of thousands of people left homeless by Sunday’s quake need clean water and tarpaulins most of all.

He said the agency has sent 20 water vehicles to five remote areas, including a village of around 1,200 households.

Thousands of tourists have left Lombok since Sunday, fearing further earthquakes, some on extra flights provided by airlines and others on ferries to the neighbouring island of Bali.

Additional reporting by agencies