Earthquake strikes off Bali
UPDATE: 1.30PM A powerful earthquake has jolted Bali, causing widespread panic and injuring at least 50 people, many with broken bones and head wounds.
The 6.0-magnitude quake, which struck at 11.16am, caused panic in tourist areas as people fled from their homes and hotels.
At least 50 people have been hurt, many with cuts, broken bones and head wounds, hospital spokesman Wayan Sudanti said. Three were in critical condition.
The injured included 12 students and three teachers injured when the ceiling of their high school caved in.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centred 100km south-west of the island and hit 60km beneath the ocean floor.
Although not strong enough to trigger a tsunami, the quake was felt on neighbouring Java and Lombok islands, hundreds of kilometres away. A number of buildings in Kuta have been damaged.
The police headquarters in Denpasar, where a 14-year-old Australian boy is being detained, was evacuated following the earthquake.
Hundreds of people poured out of the police headquarters and surrounding buildings after the quake struck, but the prisoners at the police lock-up remained behind bars.
The Australian boy, who is being held in a separate part of the complex, was allowed out of his cell but was not permitted to leave the building, a police source said.
Strong shaking was felt for several minutes in the main tourist district of Kuta, said Endro Tjahjono from the Bali office of Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.
A man pushes his motorbike in the fallen debris of a building damaged by the quake in Kuta. Picture: AP
“There was panic, everyone ran out of the buildings. When we returned to our office building, we saw some cracks on the wall and plaster had come off the walls,” he told said.
The USGS said the quake was measured at 61.3km deep, and struck some 130km south-southwest Denpasar, but Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency measured the undersea quake at 6.8-magnitude and put the quake’s depth at just 10km.
The walls of some temples along the coast crumbled and witnesses told local radio and television stations they saw some houses with collapsed roofs.
People holidaying in Bali have reported feeling two tremors in quick succession.
Former Perth man John Fawcett, who has lived in Bali for 35 years, said it was the strongest quake he had known on the Indonesian island.
“It was enormous. It just shook and shook and shook for the best part of 15 or 20 seconds. It sent all of the water in the pool all over the place,” he said.
Mr Fawcett, who lives in the coastal area of Sanur on the outskirts of Denpasar, said they were fearful that the quake would generate a tsunami.
“If we see that the water has gone out, we will be out of here,” he said.
Mr Fawcett said his wooden home had not been damaged but he suspected there would be significant damage in Denpasar.
There were also reports of guests being evacuated from hotels in Bali's tourist areas.
Margaret River resident Donna Hoole O'Leary was by the Pullman Resort Legian pool with her daughter Kate, 14, when the earthquake struck.
She said: "At first the trembles were slow and I thought at first kids were running past on the decking, there was a few second pause and then there was a huge loud rumble and the shaking intensified.
"I looked up at the buildings that surround us five-stories high, they were shaking from side to side."
Ms O'Leary said 16-year-old son, Nick, was in their room on the fourth floor when the quake hit and and was shaken off the bed.
She said when he realised what was happening he ran outside via the fire escape stairs.
Ms O'Leary said there was a bit of confusion at first, people did not know what to do and where to go but the staff were quick to act.
Everyone was told to gather out the front of the resort until the buildings were checked and the all clear was given.
"We spent about another thirty minutes outside in the evacuation area and thankfully so far ... no more shaking," Ms O'Leary said.
Ms O'Leary's eldest son, who is still in Perth, checked news reports and advised her via Facebook within minutes that there was no tsunami warning.
Bayswater residents Brett Roche and Liana Kreft were on Seminyak Road in Legion, about 5km north of Kuta, when they felt a tremor.
“I saw the windows and telephone wires wobbling overhead and realized it was an earthquake,” Mr Roche said.
“When I saw people running out of shops I thought it was a bomb as it was the anniversary of the Bali bombing yesterday and that had been on people’s minds.”
Ms Kreft had been riding her scooter when she saw people streaming out of buildings.
“All of a sudden people started sprinting out off all the shops and restaurants down this very busy road,” she said.
Mr Roche and Ms Kreft escaped injury.
“It knocked me off my motorcycle,” Miftahul Chusna, a resident of Bali said.
Candy Juliani, a public relations officer for the Sanur Beach Hotel, said everything in the building was shaking.
“The guests ran from their rooms in panic,” she said.
“We have special emergency routes for this type of situation but everyone was so scared, they just ignored them.”
Others reported seeing cracks in the walls of their offices or homes.
Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.
A giant quake off the country on December 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
