Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia, killing at least 53, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said yesterday.
They added that more than 130 people had been injured, many with broken bones.
Saturday’s quake was the Southeast Asian nation’s deadliest since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java.
More than 3,300 people in Indonesia’s Sikka region – one of the hardest hit – self-evacuated or were in a sports arena, according to the country’s national disaster mitigation agency, known as BNPB.
Some residents were stranded outside collapsed homes under makeshift tents made out of tarpaulin, while others received treatment in a tent outside the local hospital.
A sprawling archipelago of 290 million people, Indonesia straddles the ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet, triggering frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
At a now-closed port in Maumere, littered with debris from a collapsed roof and walls, residents told Reuters they were scared of aftershocks.
The disaster agency said yesterday nearly a thousand aftershocks had been recorded since the quake.
Nearby, hundreds of residents filled a sports stadium, which has been designated as an evacuation spot.
The East Nusa Tenggara government has declared an emergency for the province, BNPB said.
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