AROUND 200 Spanish nationals are waiting to be evacuated from the Indonesian island of Lombok after another devastating earthquake – this time reaching 6.9 on the Richter scale and leaving 98 dead and over 20,000 homeless.
Some are likely to be flown out of the country this evening from Mataram airport, although others will have to wait until Thursday because of a shortage of spaces with so many foreign tourists needing to be repatriated.
Mataram airport, which normally shuts at midnight, says it will stay open 24 hours a day until the crisis is over.
Spain's foreign office has advised against all travel to Lombok and the three Gili islands nearby.
One of the tourists from Spain waiting at the terminal, José María Sánchez, 39, spoke to the national daily newspaper 20minutos and explained that holidaymakers are being 'organised by national groups'.
“Those of us from the European Union will go together,” he said.
Sánchez, from Málaga, says he 'believes' he has broken a toe and has seen 'multiple bruises' and probably sprains among other tourists waiting at the airport.
The quake hit the north of Lombok late last night (Sunday) and was felt as far away as the island of Bali, causing a small tsunami.
José María says he was in Senggigi on the west coast of Lombok, 'about 300 metres from the beach', and had just arrived at his hotel when the tremor struck.
“The entire building shook and chunks of the structure began to fall down – as the swimming pool was the only part of the complex without a roof, several of us jumped into it.”
Hotel staff vanished after the quake and the group of tourists got together to decide what to do for the night.
They wandered off to a stretch of wasteland, where local residents were camped out and who helped them, and slept there.
“We managed to speak to our families and reassure them. There were dozens of aftershocks, many of them very strong, too,” José María explains.
“This morning (Monday), helped by local people, we managed to get on an airport shuttle bus, and have been there since about 08.00.”
Over 1,000 holidaymakers, Indonesian and foreign, have been evacuated by boat from the three Gili islands of Air, Meno and Trawangan to the north-west of Lombok.
None of them is believed to be seriously injured.
Beaches on these three islands were packed with crowds of tourists waiting for boats to evacuate them.
Another Spaniard, Laura Rodrigo, spoke to the newspaper 20minutos.es – she works as a chef in a holiday resort on the island of Air, where she says none of the locals have stayed as they have all gone straight to Lombok to check on their families.
“We've decided to stay, but there's nobody here. No Armed Forces or anyone who can help us – only the people from the diving schools who have their own boats,” Laura reveals.
Exactly a week earlier, Lombok island was hit by another earthquake of 6.4 on the Richter scale, leaving 16 people dead and over 550 visitors to the Rinjani volcano national park, five of whom were Spaniards, trapped and awaiting rescue.
All foreign tourists were rescued from the Rinjani by Tuesday.
