A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Indonesia’s coast early Saturday, killing at least 38 people, destroying homes and buildings, and sparking panic in a region frequently hit by deadly earthquakes.
Authorities said six people were injured and two others were missing after a landslide triggered by the quake.
A tsunami warning was issued shortly after the earthquake, prompting authorities to urge coastal residents to move to higher ground. The warning was later lifted after Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring showed no significant changes in sea levels that could threaten coastal communities.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck the Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) at 5:58 a.m. local time. The epicenter was 68 kilometers (42 miles) north-northwest of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province. Several aftershocks followed the initial quake.
Fathur Rahman, head of the Maumere Search and Rescue Agency, said rescuers had recovered at least 38 bodies from the three hardest-hit regencies of Sikka, West Manggarai and East Manggarai.
Eight of the victims were found in a landslide in the village of Reok in Manggarai, Rahman said. Six people were taken to nearby hospitals with severe injuries, while rescuers continued searching for two people reported missing after the landslide.
He said rescuers were still searching for two villagers believed to be buried under tons of mud that tumbled down from surrounding hills in a landslide triggered by the quake.
East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said the earthquake caused severe damage and collapsed buildings. He said power outages in cities and villages had hampered the flow of information 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.
Footage on local television showed patients at several hospitals being evacuated from buildings as a precaution following the quake. Hospital staff moved equipment outdoors, including beds, IV stands and oxygen cylinders, and set up temporary treatment areas to adapt to emergency conditions.
The National Disaster Management Agency deployed a helicopter to assist with logistics and support emergency response operations, including possible evacuations if needed, the agency said in a statement.
The air support is considered crucial given East Nusa Tenggara’s geography, which consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.
The agency said about 2,000 villagers in Nagekeo regency fled their homes to temporary shelters.
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, which is 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.
A powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in eastern Indonesia.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, while liquefaction caused by the shaking turned entire neighborhoods into rivers of sludge in the eastern Indonesian city of Palu, on the Palu-Koro Fault. The disaster killed more than 4,400 people.
In 2010, a 10-foot (3-meter) wave struck the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra, just minutes after a massive offshore earthquake. More than 400 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed.
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.
