51 dead after magnitude-7.7 earthquake strikes Indonesia's Flores region

Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia recovered four more bodies Sunday after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck the day before, bringing the death toll to 51, authorities said. Thousands have been displaced.

The US Geological Survey said the powerful earthquake hit eastern Indonesia's Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometres (6 miles) at 5:58 am local time. Residents fled in panic as tsunami warnings were issued and later lifted. At least 235 aftershocks followed, according to Indonesia's meteorological agency.

Rescuers on Sunday dug through debris looking for people feared buried beneath landslides triggered by the quake across six regencies on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. They focused on three regencies that remained inaccessible after the earthquake: the hardest-hit Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo.

“We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts,” said Fathur Rahman, head of the Search and Rescue Office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

The National Search and Rescue Agency said 101 people were injured. More than 900 homes were destroyed and 450 more damaged, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters. 

Thousands at Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo National Park, one of Indonesia's best-known tourist destinations, spent the night outdoors, fearing strong aftershocks. 

“The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed,” said Anastasia Imad, a farmer, speaking from a makeshift green tent beside her damaged home. “We feared the aftershocks would bring it down on us while we slept.”

Landslides blocked sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, a roughly 700-kilometre (435-mile) road linking communities across the mountainous island.

Meanwhile, relief workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets and medicine, while emergency shelters were being set up for displaced residents. Authorities said restoring electricity and communications, as well as delivering aid to remote villages isolated by landslides, remained among the biggest challenges.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped arc of seismic faults and volcanoes.

Flores has experienced some of the country's deadliest disasters. A powerful earthquake and tsunami in 1992 killed about 2,500 people on the island.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people. In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.  (With Inputs from PTI)