Rescue teams in Vanuatu are scrambling to find survivors trapped inside buildings, a day after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake killed 14 people in the capital Port Vila.
At least 200 people were injured in Tuesday’s earthquake, with many of the casualties concentrated around several buildings in the city center.
A witness who was in Vanuatu’s tallest building at the time of the quake told the BBC he and his wife ran “all the way” outside, adding: “If it had lasted another 10 seconds, I wouldn’t be talking to you today.” added. ”.
A seven-day state of emergency was declared to restrict the movement of the public while rescue operations were carried out, police said.
Glenn Craig, chairman of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council, told the BBC that he and his wife were in “good spirits” and were enjoying Christmas celebrations on Tuesday when the quake struck, but they were completely caught off guard. he said.
“We (Vanuatuans) are used to disasters…Usually we hear an earthquake coming. We hear sounds like rumbling and deep roaring. But with this earthquake, there is no warning. It was just a sudden boom. It felt like this was a once-in-a-generation thing.”
The government’s disaster management agency said at least 10 buildings in Port Vila had sustained “significant structural damage.” Power and mobile phone services were also cut off due to the shaking caused by the earthquake.
Craig said one building, which houses several embassies, including the U.S. Embassy and the British High Commission, was particularly damaged.
“That building just turned into a pancake,” he said. “There are about seven or eight buildings (in the area) that were destroyed and the number of casualties is likely to rise.”
Aftershocks were also reported overnight.
“There were a number of aftershocks throughout the night,” Australian Caroline Bird, who runs a resort in Port Vila, told ABC News. “You probably can’t even count how many there are.”
Six victims died in the landslide, and four others were inside buildings that collapsed when the earthquake occurred. The death toll is expected to rise further.
Two of the 14 victims were Chinese nationals, Li Mingang, China’s ambassador to Vanuatu, told state media.
Photos shared by Vanuatu police on Facebook showed rescue workers sifting through rubble by hand and crawling beneath the floors of collapsed buildings.
Michael Thompson was among those who searched through the night for survivors.
He said in a Facebook post that three people were rescued from the building overnight, but later told the news agency that one of them later died.
Mr Thompson added that rescue teams were in dire need of jackhammers, excavators and cold drinking water, with many rescue workers “working through the night”.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an estimated 116,000 people could be worst affected by the earthquake.
EPAHowever, Craig said most of the damage was confined to specific areas. Vanuatu’s suburbs were largely unaffected, and most people living outside the capital were also unaffected, he added.
“We’re used to hurricanes causing problems like food shortages and housing impacts. This time we’re having none of that,” he said.
“But natural disasters usually don’t cause this many deaths. So this level of death toll is not normal for us.”
Neighboring Australia plans to send a team to assist with search and rescue operations, and the United States and France have also pledged support.
The earthquake occurred at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) on Tuesday, prompting a short tsunami warning.
Vanuatu is a low-lying archipelago of approximately 80 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, west of Fiji and thousands of kilometers east of northern Australia.
Vanuatu is located in a seismically active area and is subject to frequent major earthquakes and other natural disasters.
“We’ve had coronavirus and we’ve had three cyclones in the last year, so we don’t really need this,” Craig said. “But I think we’ll be back to some semblance of normality by Thursday.
“Banks will open tomorrow. We need equipment from Australia to restore the internet. It will arrive soon. Power will be restored within a few days. So, although we are suffering now, we will I will overcome it.”
