Updated ,first published
Jakarta: At least five people have been killed after an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 and dozens of aftershocks struck off eastern Indonesia early on Saturday, a provincial governor said.
Tsunami waves of less than 1 metre were recorded in several areas of the South-east Asian nation. The tsunami warning was lifted about three hours after the quake.
The governor of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena, told a press conference the five people died from collapsing rubble as they slept.
The national disaster mitigation agency BNPB put the toll at one dead and four injured.
Parts of a building collapsed into dust and rubble as people screamed and ran in the street, a video on Facebook, verified by Reuters as being at a port in Maumere, showed. It is the main town in Sikka Regency on Flores Island in the east of Indonesia’s vast archipelago.
“The quake was massive, the shock was so strong, we were resting at home with family,” said Nona, a 51-year-old resident of Talibura, a village in East Nusa Tenggara. “There were 13 of us inside the house and we all ran to save ourselves.”
Strong shaking was felt across East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and parts of South Sulawesi, and residents in several areas reported shaking lasting about one minute, BNPB said in a statement.
“Most of the people felt the shock and scattered out of their homes,” it said.
A hospital in the district of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara Province was moving patients outside, Kompas TV footage showed, and Kompas.com reported at least one landslide.
The 7.7-magnitude quake was recorded by several agencies at 5.58am central Indonesian time (7.58am AEST) near the south-eastern island of Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. It was followed by at least four aftershocks with magnitudes between 5.5 and 6.1, the US Geological Survey said.
Residents along affected coastlines were advised to move to higher ground as officials were closely monitoring coastal tide gauges for any changes.
Australia’s tsunami warning centre said the undersea earthquake would have “no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories”.
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. In December 1992, a magnitude-7 earthquake caused a tsunami that killed about 2500 people on Flores Island.
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 Pelni port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake hit the Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometres. Its epicentre was 68 kilometres north-north-west of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Depth is one of the most difficult aspects of an earthquake to measure. BMKG recorded the first quake at a depth of 15 kilometres. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre recorded it at a depth of 35 kilometres.
Reuters, Bloomberg, AP
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