Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51 people, blocking roads and triggering landslides, authorities said on Sunday.
The hit East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday morning, leaving 36 people seriously injured and 77 others with minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus said.
The quake was followed by about 341 aftershocks and is Indonesia’s deadliest since a 2022 earthquake in West Java killed hundreds of people.
More than 3,300 people in the Sikka region either evacuated their homes or sought shelter at a sports arena, according to the disaster mitigation agency BNPB.
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Some residents were stranded outside collapsed homes and slept under makeshift tarpaulin shelters, while injured people were treated in tents outside a hospital in the port town of Maumere.
More than 3,500 military and police personnel have been deployed to the affected areas to assist with rescue and relief operations.
Rescuers have reached parts of Maumere that were cut off by landslides. Most of the missing are believed to be trapped under rubble, while more than 1,300 homes have been damaged, BNPB said.
Twenty petrol stations were also forced to close because of power outages, state energy company Pertamina said.
The East Nusa Tenggara government is considering declaring a state of emergency to enable authorities to mobilise additional resources and funding.
Indonesia lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet, making the country prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
