Multiple quakes rock Indonesia's Lombok island, five dead

Multiple earthquakes -- including a powerful and shallow 6.9-magnitude tremor -- have rocked the Indonesian holiday island of Lombok, killing at least five people and setting off fresh waves of panic.

A series of quakes were recorded by seismologists throughout yesterday, the first measuring 6.3 shortly before midday which triggered landslides and sent people fleeing for cover.

It was followed nearly twelve hours later by a quake measuring 6.9 and at least five more significant aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey.

The picturesque island is already reeling from two devastating quakes on July 29 and August 5 that killed nearly 500 people and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

Local disaster agency spokesman Agung Pramuja said five people were killed by the quake late last evening, two in eastern Lombok and three on the neighbouring island of Sumbawa.

"So far five people died and scores of people are injured. We are still collecting data on the exact number," Pramuja told AFP Monday.

Officials have evacuated a number of patients from a hospital in Sumbawa island for fear of worse destruction.

Blackouts had hit much of Lombok, according to a spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, who posted pictures of cracked roads and video footage of a large fire that broke out in a village on Sumbawa.

One Lombok resident said the powerful tremor jolted him awake. "The earthquake was incredibly strong. Everything was shaking," Agus Salim told AFP.

"We were all sleeping in an evacuation tent. I had just fallen asleep when suddenly it started to shake.... Everyone ran into the street screaming and crying."