A powerful ۷.۷-magnitude quake struck eastern Indonesia early on Saturday, killing at least ۳۸ people, causing widespread panic and collapsing buildings and homes in a region prone to deadly earthquakes.
Authorities had issued a tsunami warning, which has since been lifted, but there have been dozens of aftershocks, including one with a magnitude of ۶.۱. Indonesian authorities said that monitoring showed no significant sea level changes that could indicate a tsunami.
Tsunami waves of less than ۱ metre (۳ft) were recorded in several areas.
Indonesian geophysics agency BMKG recorded the first quake at ۴.۵۸am local time at a depth of ۹ miles (۱۵km) in the country’s Flores region.
Rescuers around the port town of Maumere found ۲۰ dead, six severely injured and two trapped under the rubble, said Fathur Rahman, the head of the city’s rescue agency. Eight of those dead had been killed in a landslide. Maumere is the main town in Sikka regency on Flores Island in the east of Indonesia’s vast archipelago.
A video on Facebook, verified by Reuters as being at a port in Maumere, shows parts of a building collapsed into dust and rubble as people scream and run in the street.
“I have never felt an earthquake this big,” Yulian Juita Ekalia, a ۳۷-year-old university professor who lives more than ۶۰ miles from the centre of the quake, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It felt like we were on a trampoline, it was really scary.”
The epicentre of the quake was located off the north coast of Flores, about ۴۲ miles (۶۸km) north-west of the coastal town of Ende, US and Indonesian authorities said.
Teams have yet to reach Nagekeo, the region closest to the epicentre, and communications signals there have been affected, Fathur told Reuters. Attempts to reach Nagekeo by car were blocked by landslides, while another team was attempting to go by ferry, he said.
The police chief of East Nusa Tenggara province, Rudi Darmoko, said the earthquake caused power outages that made communication difficult between cities and villages, complicating rescue efforts.
“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He added that landslides in Ende regency cut off the Trans-Flores highway, a ۴۳۵-mile mountain road spanning the island.
Residents in Nagekeo regency raced for higher ground immediately after the earthquake.
“Suddenly it started to shake and I panicked,” Lukas Lotar, a ۳۱-year-old hospital customer service official, told AFP. “Patients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked,” he added.
Nagekeo resident Yohanes Babo, ۵۶, said he was at a market when the quake hit.
“The shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house,” he said.
“People were panicking, running here and there. We’re evacuating for the time being … and trying to get to the hills,” he said, adding: “My family is safe. No one was harmed.”
About ۲,۰۰۰ residents in Nagekeo evacuated, and damage to a number of houses, warehouses and government facilities was reported, the national disaster mitigation agency, the BNPB, said. Authorities also reported traffic congestion and power outages affecting parts of the regency, it said.
Local television showed patients at several hospitals being evacuated from buildings as a precaution after the quake. Healthcare workers set up temporary treatment facilities outdoors, moving beds, IV stands and oxygen on to the streets.
The BNPB, which put the quake’s toll at one dead and four injured, said it was still gathering data.
Images broadcast on Indonesian television showed hundreds of people in nearby Nagekeo regency evacuating the area, surrounded by the rubble of damaged buildings.
The quake was felt across much of Flores island, with initial reports indicating heavy damage.
Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka, a regency within East Nusa Tenggara province, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground.
“Many buildings here were damaged … I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.
Indonesia, consisting of more than ۱۷,۰۰۰ islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “ring of fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
In ۲۰۰۴, a massive ۹.۱-magnitude tremor struck off the coast of western Indonesia, causing a tsunami that killed ۲۲۰,۰۰۰ people in the Asia Pacific area.
