82 killed as powerful quake jolts Indonesia

IANS  |  Jakarta 

At least 82 people have been killed after a powerful measuring 7 on the Richter scale jolted the Indonesian island of Lombok, officials said.

The magnitude seven tremor was shallow, happening only 10 km underground. It damaged thousands of buildings and triggered power cuts.

In the neighbouring island of Bali, video footage showed people running from their homes screaming.

The quake comes a week after another quake hit Lombok, a popular for its beaches and hiking trails, killing at least 16 people.

A tsunami warning was issued but was lifted after a few hours.

A for Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency said many buildings had been affected in Lombok's main city of Mataram, most of them built with weak construction materials.

residents described a powerful jolt that sent people fleeing from buildings.

"Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," one resident named as Iman said.

In several parts of Mataram, there were

Patients at the city hospital, and also at in Bali, were evacuated and tended to by doctors in the streets.

Debris littered the streets of and Bali, which local people sought to clean up in the hours after the quake.

The quake was felt for several seconds in Bali, where people ran out of buildings.

A in Bali's capital city Denpasar described the scene to the

"They were initially just little shocks but then they started to get bigger and bigger and people started to shout 'earthquake', then all the staff panicked and rushed out of the building," the unnamed man said.

Singapore's was in for a security conference when the struck.

He described on how his hotel room shook violently. "It was quite impossible to stand up," he said.

Airports on both and are both operating normally despite some minor damage - at some ceiling panels were shaken loose by the tremors.

is prone to earthquakes because it lies on the Ring of Fire -- the line of frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions that circles virtually the entire

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, August 06 2018. 08:02 IST