At least 51 people have died and around 5,000 others have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck eastern Indonesia, authorities said on Sunday.
The powerful quake hit East Nusa Tenggara province on Saturday morning, triggering landslides, blocking roads and damaging homes.
Media reported Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus saying that 36 people suffered serious injuries, while another 77 sustained minor injuries.
Authorities recorded around 341 aftershocks following the main tremor, making it Indonesia’s deadliest earthquake since a 2022 disaster in West Java that claimed hundreds of lives.
The disaster mitigation agency BNPB said more than 3,300 people in the Sikka region either left their homes voluntarily or sought shelter at a sports arena. Some residents were forced to sleep under temporary tarpaulin shelters after their houses collapsed, while injured people were treated in tents outside a hospital in the port city of Maumere.
More than 3,500 military personnel and police officers have been sent to the affected areas to assist with rescue and relief efforts, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said.
Indonesia’s search and rescue agency reported that teams had reached areas of Maumere previously cut off by landslides. BNPB said more than 1,300 houses had been damaged, while some people were believed to remain trapped beneath debris.
Authorities had yet to provide an immediate estimate of the number of missing people.
Power outages also disrupted fuel supplies, with state energy company Pertamina reporting that 20 petrol stations were unable to operate.
Indonesia, home to about 290 million people, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most seismically active regions. The convergence of tectonic plates makes the archipelago particularly vulnerable to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
