A strong aftershock has struck Indonesia’s Lombok island, just four days after a devastating earthquake killed more than 345 people and left thousands homeless.
The 5.9-magnitude aftershock quake struck at a shallow depth on Thursday, with its epicentre in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said.
It further weakened any buildings still standing on the island in the wake of Sunday’s 7.0 quake, and a 6.4 quake on July 29 that killed 16, complicating rescue operations.
Devastation: A man carries his belongings past the ruin of houses at a village affected by an earthquake in North Lombok, Indonesia, as a powerful aftershock rocked the island
‘Evacuees and people 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 (BNPB), said on Twitter.
Officials said the quake’s epicentre was on land and so there was no risk of a tsunami.
BNPB’s official death toll from Sunday’s quake stood at 131 on Wednesday, although some Indonesian officials put the number at 347. Sutopo did not give an updated toll, saying only that there had been ‘a big increase’.
Indonesian authorities are appealing for food, clean water and medical help for the more than 156,000 people forced from their homes and 1,477 severely injured and in need of medical care.

Recovering: A woman feeds an injured family member at a tent used as a makeshift hospital ward, four days after the area was hit by an earthquake in Mataram, Lombok

Villagers clear rubble from destroyed houses in Menggala, northern Lombok

Indonesians carrying an elderly woman at a temporary shelter in Pemenang on Lombok Island
Many frightened, displaced villagers are staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.
The Indonesian Red Cross said it was focusing its Lombok earthquake relief efforts on an estimated 20,000 people in remote areas in the north of the island where aid still has not reached.
Spokesman Arifin Hadi says the tens of thousands 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 one village of about 1,200 households.
He said: ‘People are always saying they need water and tarps.’
He said they were also looking for people with untreated injuries.