Lombok rocked by another strong earthquake

The Indonesian Island of Lombok has been hit by another strong earthquake, just after weeks after another quake killed more than 460 people.

The island was hit by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake, causing landslides. Until now, it is not known if there are any casualties.

The quake was centred west-southwest of Belanting town in East Lombok at a shallow depth of 7km, the US Geological Survey said.

Residents said the earthquake was felt strongly in east Lombok, sending people fleeing into the streets.

The island has been rocked by hundreds of quakes and tremors since 29 July.

The biggest quake - of 6.9 magnitude - was on 5 August, and killed more than 460 people.

Two series of quakes 5.2 and 6.4 m have just rocked #Lombok a few mins ago. The quakes have caused big landslides in Belanting village, East Lombok. @IFRCAsiaPacific pic.twitter.com/78UKwDbXEw

— Husni (@husni_portraits) August 19, 2018

It levelled homes, mosques and businesses, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, including many tourists.

In the first in the series, on 29 July, a 6.4 magnitude quake trigged landslides in the mountain region of the island and killed at least 16 people.

Officials said they were still assessing the situation following the latest quake on Sunday.

"The earthquake caused people to panic and flee their homes," the national disaster agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told local media.

"There have been no reports of death or (serious) damage but people are traumatised."

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the Pacific “ring of fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

In 2004, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, in western Indonesia, killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.