A New Zealander who was on the Gili Islands just off Lombok says thousands of people are still stuck there.
Foreign tourists sleep on the floor as they wait to depart from the Praya Lombok International Airport as aftershocks continue to rock Indonesia. Photo: AFP
About 20,000 people have lost their homes and many moved to unaffected areas of the Indonesian island of Lombok after a powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake left 98 people dead.
Boats were sent to evacuate about 2000 tourists from the nearby Gili islands.
Witnesses spoke of chaos and terror during the quake, with thousands of buildings damaged, and power and communication lines cut.
Jon Braithwaite, originally from Whāngārei, runs a backpacking and diving business on Gili Trawangan.
His two sisters and three brothers were visiting to celebrate his wedding when the earthquake hit.
Initially they sought higher ground because they feared a tsunami but eventually they went back down to get supplies, he said.
"That was another really surreal moment where you just walk through the streets a couple of hours previously where they were buzzing with people, and now they're just ghost towns with half buildings collapsed and walls broken over everywhere, and you have to be sort of careful with where you step, and what you're walking into, you know, because we're still getting tremors."
Wisatawan asing dsn domestik menunggu evakuasi dari Gili Trawangan, Gilingan Air dan Gili Meno Lombok Utara. Terbatasnya kapal menyebabkan evakuasi bertahap. Tim SAR akan menambah kapal. pic.twitter.com/EZKqwLnQjQ
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) August 6, 2018
Situated off the north-west of Lombok and popular with backpackers and divers, the Gili islands were badly hit, with a number of hotels damaged.
Video and still images showed hundreds of tourists flocking to the beach to be evacuated.
There have been reports of deaths on the islands but these have not been confirmed.
Indonesia sent rescuers fanning out across the holiday island of Lombok and evacuated more than 2000 tourists. Photo: AFP
British tourist Mike Bennett told the BBC that thousands of tourists had been taken off by boat, but not everyone had been evacuated by the time night fell.
"We're here with maybe about 100 people, it's getting dark now. There's no power, there's no water," he said. "We're just going to hold out and see what happens tomorrow."
"We cannot evacuate all of them all at once because we don't have enough capacity on the boats," Muhammad Faozal, of West Nusa Tenggara's tourism agency, told AFP.
"It's understandable they want to leave the Gilis, they are panicking."
The UK Foreign Office said it was working with Indonesian authorities to help British people affected, and that extra flights were being added for people who wished to leave Lombok.
Helen Milne told the BBC that her daughter, Laura, from the UK, was on the island of Gili Trawangan.
"They are stuck on the island and are reporting rioting, fighting, and people can't get on boats. There's no water, no food, the shops have been ransacked. It's a rapidly deteriorating situation out there for them," she said.
Another Briton on Gili Trawangan, James Kelsall, told the Press Association the subsequent tsunami warning was the most terrifying part.
"All the locals were frantically running and screaming, putting on life jackets. We followed them up to higher ground, which was a steep, uneven climb to the top of a hill in darkness."
The tsunami warning was lifted after a few hours.
Margret Helgadottir, from Iceland, told Agence France-Presse people screamed as the roof of her hotel on Gili Air collapsed.
"We just froze, thankfully we were outside. Everything went black, it was terrible."
Phillipa Hodge told the BBC she was eating at the Katamaran Hotel Sengiggi, with friends.
"The lights went out... that's when it became chaotic. People were falling over each other trying to get out, and glass was shattering. We felt debris fall on to us.
"I couldn't see my partner and I was shouting his name. Finally we found each other and he had blood all over his face and shirt."
Injured victims rest at a makeshift hospital in Pemenang, the day after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the area. Photo: AFP
Residents 'scared to return home'
Aid agencies said the priority was to provide shelter for residents.
Many are said to be too scared to return to their homes.
The agencies said the impact was far bigger than another quake that hit Lombok last week, killing 16 people.
President Joko Widodo urged the speedy evacuation of casualties, calling for more flights to be sent to the affected areas.
Indonesian Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that the northern area of Lombok had suffered massive damage.
Three C-130 Hercules transporter aircraft and two helicopters have been deployed to deliver tents and medical aid, but the earthquake has brought down roads and bridges, making areas difficult to reach.
Electricity supply in the worst-affected areas has been cut off and telecommunication networks are not working.
The death toll stands at 98, all Indonesians, but Mr Sutopo said that number would "definitely increase". At least another 230 people have been injured.
Indonesian search and rescue personnel work on a collapsed mosque in Pemenang. Photo: AFP
He pointed to the situation at a collapsed mosque in the village of Lading-Lading in north Lombok, where a lack of heavy lifting equipment had made it difficult to locate victims.
One official said 80 percent of north Lombok had suffered damage.
The main city of Mataram was also badly affected, with medical staff struggling to cope with the injured at the damaged hospitals.
- BBC / RNZ
