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INDONESIA HAS MOUNTED a rescue operation to reach more than 500 hikers and guides stranded by landslides on an active volcano on Lombok, a day after a powerful earthquake struck the holiday island.
Helicopters and search teams on foot have been deployed to scour the slopes of Mount Rinjani, which is crisscrossed with hiking routes popular with tourists, while rescuers have made airdrops of food supplies to those stranded.
Tonnes of rock and mud were dislodged on the mountain in the 6.4-magnitude quake, which struck early yesterday and was followed by scores of aftershocks, leaving hikers with no easy way down to safety.
“There are still 560 people trapped,” Sudiyono, the head of Rinjani national park, who goes by one name, said.
Those believed to be stranded include citizens from the United States, France, the Netherlands, Thailand and Germany, as well as many other countries, search and rescue officials said.
At least 16 people were killed in the earthquake across affected areas of Lombok, while hundreds of buildings were destroyed.
Food for two days
The rescue operation on Mount Rinjani is likely to run until at least tomorrow and a military helicopter has dropped supplies at several spots on the mountain, according to search and rescue agency officials.
“For supplies, they can still survive for another one to two days,” Agus Hendra Sanjaya, spokesman for Mataram’s search and rescue agency, told AFP.
No hikers are injured, he added.
Rising some 3,726 metres (12,224 feet) above sea level, the peak is the second-tallest volcano in Indonesia and a favourite among sightseers keen to take in its expansive views.
Hiking trails on the mountain were closed following the quake due to fear of further landslides.
The epicentre of the earthquake was 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Lombok’s main city Mataram, the United States Geological Survey said, far from the main tourist spots on the south and west of the island.
The initial tremor was followed by two strong secondary quakes and more than 100 aftershocks.
Some 160 people were injured as a result, Mohammad Rum, head of West Nusa Tenggara disaster agency, said.
Among the dead are one Malaysian, with six injured, the Malaysian foreign ministry said.
President Joko Widodo visited the affected site today and promised financial support for people who had lost their homes.
“We must be aware that our country is in the Ring of Fire, so people need to be prepared to face any disaster,” Widodo said.
Indonesia, one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth, straddles the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, where tectonic plates collide and a large portion 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.
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The American military have dropped worse things on Japan.
@michael: Baseball?
@michael: so True, and “regrettable” who writes that stuff, regrettable is when you forget to get milk .
Why would they have to fly over a school? Also, where is the justification of having a military base outside of US territory?
@Andy K:
If any flight path had to avoid every school, hospital or any other place with a high level of footfall then we would have to stop flying altogether.
As for the bases outside of the US, the Japanese asked them to be there.
@Andy K: Kim Jong Un
@Andy K: the upcoming War with North Korea I’d surmise ?
@Thought for Food: Hmm, I did not know Japanese forces requested the US to stay there. I thought it was more like what happened in Germany where there was no peace treaty signed after WW2.
And I do not mean to stop every aircraft flying over schools, but a helicopter is a different scenario. They can easily change their flight path.
@Andy K:
Again, no they can’t if they had to for every school or other high traffic area. This is one incident out of tens of thousands of flyovers and there were no casualties. Statistically the cars driving past are far more dangerous.
As for the American presence in Japan, the US and Japanese governments signed an agreement where the Japanese would forego an offensive military and in exchange the US would provide military protection from external threats to Japanese sovereignty.
@Andy K: when a football team is playing another football team they’ll send scouts to the other teams training ground to watch them train before a big game. Id say it’s much like this
@Andy K: ah Andy. Uk, Philippines, South Korea, etc etc. Wakey wakey
@Thought for Food: that’s not really true. It is a forced occupation that Japan pays billions of dollars every year to the US to be there. At the end of the US occupation of Japan after WW2, the US changed that “land occupation” into a protective force that Japan has to pay for. Officially Japan requested it, but in reality it was forced by the US who can control access to the Pacific Ocean, and keep an eye on China.
@Thought for Food: now having said that, China claims the Okinawa islands as theirs, so if the US decided to leave that place, China would jump on it. Okinawa is strategically way too important to be left alone unfortunately. Control of Okinawa controls the access to the Pacific Ocean. I don’t think the US will never leave that place.
@Andy K: to defend the rest of you who won’t or can’t defend yourself. Bitch and complain you ungrateful whatever. Security is secured with blood and sweat. How about some of yours for awhile.
I wonder was it a new, clear window?
Of course they are taking it “very seriously “, those doors aren’t cheap you know.
@Larry Doyle: windows
Wasn’t “regrettable” the word used when paramilitaries killed, maimed or injured others than whom the incendiary/viable device was intended for? They never worked out that human beings are sentient, except maybe when a device went off prematurely in the bomber’s hand. And only of late are we realising that animals can feel – even marine life has feelings. Humanity – “a joke in progress.” And before someone says, “speak for yourself!” …I DO.
@Paul Jennings:
What about plants, do they not have feelings too?
@Nick Allen: Actually, they do. They can feel pain and they also react to plants nearby being injured or killed. There have been numerous studies and they seem to show that plants to have feelings.
@Nick Allen: well I take care of mine and talk to them even. They don’t also respond no matter how much t.l.c. I give them. In fact sometimes they seem to absolutely thrive on neglect. We don’t speak the same language. A bit like some of the women I’ve encountered. Self sentient primarily.
“Ooh,shut that door!
@gerry fallon: it’s the window Gerry.
Let’s hope the North Koreans don’t invade anytime soon with the keystone cops on this base.
It could have been a real pane in the neck.
“Regrettable”? Seriously?
Regrettable ? No shiiiit sherlock !!
A piece left over from WW11
New bomb. Glass
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