Magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes off Indonesia’s coast, killing at least 40 and toppling buildings

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 40 people, collapsing buildings and causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said dozens of residents were injured.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning when Indonesia’s meteorological agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that would pose a threat to coastal communities.

The US Geological Survey said the quake hit Indonesia’s Flores region with a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles) at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 68 km (42 miles) north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The meteorological agency said the quake was followed by 235 aftershocks by Saturday afternoon, with the largest up to magnitude 6.2.

The agency’s sea-level monitoring stations recorded tsunami waves reaching coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies, with waves up to 1.61 meters (5.3 feet) high, while waves measuring 0.94 meters (3.1 feet) were observed in Maurole, Ende Regency.

Videos obtained by The Associated Press showed a coastal village blanketed in mud and debris after a 1.61-meter (5.3 feet) tsunami reached Ngada village in East Manggarai. Fishing boats were stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged, and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.

Tsunami waves exceeding 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) were also detected in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, and Sape in Bima Regency

East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said the earthquake caused severe damage and collapsed buildings. He said power outages in cities and villages have hampered information flow and complicated search and rescue efforts.

“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He said landslides in Ende regency triggered by the earthquake also cut off the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 700-kilometer (435-mile) paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.

The head of the National Search and Rescue Agency Fathur Rahman said rescuers have recovered at least 40 bodies, mostly in the three devastated regencies of Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai, and about 50 people were transported to hospitals. More than 2,000 villagers in Nagekeo regency fled their homes to temporary shelters.

The death toll could rise because landslides triggered by the earthquake buried or cut off many remote villages across six regencies on Flores Island, Rahman said.

Some remote villages were completely buried, he said, and damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment have hampered rescue efforts.

Authorities said three helicopters and a rescue vessel were deployed to support logistics and emergency response operations, including possible evacuations if needed, given East Nusa Tenggara’s geography, which consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.

The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.

Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka regency, 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.

Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled in panic when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, known locally as Ritapiret Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”

The quake also reportedly caused panic in Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, one of the country’s best-known attractions. Damage was also reported in Bima, a city in neighboring West Nusa Tenggara province, and in parts of southern Sulawesi island.

Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores island.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 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.

Most notably, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia, while in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, killing more than 4,400 people.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

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