SOLDIERS have pulled a man alive from the rubble of a mosque flattened by an earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok.
Thousands of homeless locals waited for aid yesterday and stranded tourists camped on beaches and in the lobbies of damaged hotels.
The north of Lombok has been devastated by the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck on Sunday night, damaging thousands of buildings and killing at least 98 people.
Rescuers were still struggling to reach all of the affected areas and authorities expect the death toll to rise.
Disaster officials have not said how many people they believe are buried beneath the ruins of the Jabal Nur mosque but a rescue worker said about 50 people were praying inside when it collapsed.
Video shot by a soldier shows rescuers shouting “Thank God” as a man is pulled from a space under the mosque’s flattened roof sometime on Monday and he staggers away from the ruins supported by soldiers.
Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said he hopes “a lot” of people can be saved from the mosque.
Two people were rescued from the building on Monday including a woman with a broken leg, said villager Supri Yono, and three were found dead. Rescuers were using heavy duty cutting equipment to prize apart the tangled debris.
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