At least 38 killed as magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Indonesia's Flores Island
A major earthquake on Indonesia’s Flores Island has left at least 38 people dead and forced thousands of residents to seek higher ground after a brief tsunami alert. Rescue teams are now racing to reach isolated communities in the island’s mountainous interior.
The 7.7-magnitude tremor struck at 05:00 local time on Saturday (22:00 GMT Friday) at a shallow depth of 15 kilometres, according to Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency. Shallow quakes typically produce more violent surface shaking, and the damage has been severe, particularly in the eastern part of the island.
The epicentre lay around 1,000 kilometres east of Bali, near the port town of Maumere. Video from the port showed chunks of concrete falling from the terminal building as passengers waited for an inter-island ferry; some people were thrown into the water when the gangway collapsed.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Indo-Australian, Eurasian and Pacific tectonic plates collide. That makes earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions a recurring hazard for the archipelago. Even so, residents say this quake was unlike anything they had experienced before.
East Nusa Tenggara governor Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena told reporters that many of the victims were killed as they slept while walls collapsed. “They were killed in their sleep by collapsing rubble,” he said.
In the coastal village of Talibura, resident Arnold Welianto described how the shaking drove families into the hills. “I was startled awake and immediately went to my child’s room,” he told the BBC. He said many neighbours had already fled, and that a receding sea triggered even greater alarm before the tsunami warning was officially lifted.
Authorities had issued a tsunami warning soon after the initial quake, telling coastal residents to move inland. Around 2,000 people evacuated on their own, but no significant sea-level rise was recorded, and the alert was cancelled roughly three hours later.
Strong aftershocks have continued to shake the area, including a magnitude 6.1 event near the epicentre and a separate magnitude 6.4 quake in North Sumatra at a depth of 163 kilometres. In the town of Ruteng, west of the epicentre, university lecturer Yulian Juita Ekalia said she and her neighbours were cooking outdoors out of fear. “It felt like we were on a trampoline – it was really scary,” she told AFP.
The national disaster agency, BNPB, reported that dozens of people had been injured and that at least 54 houses, five health facilities, three places of worship and several government buildings were damaged. The full extent of the destruction is still unclear, as the affected area is remote and mountainous, with limited road access and intermittent communications.
“We advise residents to remain calm, avoid damaged buildings and stay away from coastal zones,” a BNPB spokesperson said. Rescue and evacuation efforts are continuing, but the scale of the disaster suggests that recovery will be a long and difficult process.