Death toll reaches 38 after powerful Indonesia earthquake

At least 38 people have died after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia on Saturday, which was followed by dozens of aftershocks.

"Thirty-eight people have been confirmed dead, two were seriously injured, 11 sustained minor injuries, and approximately 2,000 people have evacuated on their own," Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto told a news conference on Saturday.

The earthquake struck off Flores island in eastern Indonesia early Saturday, sending thousands running in panic after authorities issued a tsunami warning.

Tsunami waves of less than one metre were recorded in several areas of the Southeast Asian nation. The warning was later lifted.

Residents in Nagekeo regency on Flores, the area closest to the epicentre, raced for higher ground as the sea retreated.

Teams had yet to reach Nagekeo, and communications signals there had been ‌affected, Fathur Rahman, head of the city's rescue agency, told Reuters.

Attempts to reach Nagekeo ⁠by car were blocked by landslides, while another team was attempting to go by ferry, he said.

About 2,000 residents in Nagekeo evacuated, and damage was reported to a number of houses, warehouses and government facilities, national disaster mitigation agency BNPB said.

Authorities also reported traffic congestion and power outages affecting parts of the regency, it said.

The governor of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena, told a media conference at least five people died from collapsing rubble as they slept.

The epicentre of the shallow quake was located off the north coast of the island, about 68 kilometres northwest of the coastal town of Ende, US and Indonesian authorities said.

The initial jolt was followed by strong aftershocks in the same area, including one with a magnitude of 6.1.

"Suddenly it started to shake and I panicked," 31-year-old hospital customer service official and Maumere resident, Lukas Lotar, told AFP.

Maumere is the main town in Sikka regency, next to Nagekeo regency on Flores.

"Patients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked," he said.

A resident in Nagekeo, Yohanes Babo, 56, said he was at a market when the earth started shaking.

"The shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house," he told AFP.

"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."

Strong shaking was also 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.

Indonesian geophysics agency BMKG recorded the first quake at 4.58am at a depth of 15km, followed by several aftershocks.

In 1992 the same area was hit by a magnitude-7.5 quake, causing extensive destruction at that time, the agency said.

Tsunami scare

Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warned earlier on Saturday of the possibility of tsunami waves following the quake and urged people to get to higher ground.

An alert was issued for waves ranging from 0.5 metres to three metres (1.6 to 9.8 feet), but was later lifted.

Indonesia and neighbouring countries experience frequent earthquakes due to their location in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" — an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Among Indonesia's history of deadly quakes is a devastating 9.1-magnitude tremor in 2004 that struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.

The Boxing Day tragedy was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

In 2018, a powerful quake shook the island of Lombok and several more tremors followed over the next couple of weeks, killing more than 550 people on the holiday island and neighbouring Sumbawa.

Later that year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.

Australia's tsunami warning centre said the undersea earthquake would have "no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories".

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