Earthquake of magnitude 5.5 hits Indonesia's Lombok region

Lombok, Mar 17: An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Indonesia's Lombok region at 07:07 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on Sunday.

The latest one struck about 10km, according to the United States Geological Survey.

However, there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Disaster-prone Indonesia, which sits on the geologically active so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide, suffered its deadliest year in more than a decade in 2018 as a series of earthquakes and tsunamis killed thousands of people.

Earlier in the day, flash flooding in the Indonesian province of Papua killed at least 50 people and injured 59 near the provincial capital, Jayapura, disaster officials said Sunday.

The number of victims is expected to rise as rescuers search for survivors in the town of Sentani, which was hit by the flood Saturday evening.

Indonesia has suffered a string of disasters over the last year that have claimed thousands of lives, including an earthquake and tsunami on the island of Sulawesi; a volcanic eruption and tsunami in the Sunda Strait; an earthquake on the resort island of Lombok; and the crash of a Lion Air jetliner into the Java Sea.