A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, destroying buildings in the capital, Port Vila, including one that houses the embassies of the United States and other nations. A witness told Agence France-Presse of the bodies seen in the city.
Dan McGarry, a reporter for the Vanuatu-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, told the Reuters news agency in an interview that police said at least one person had died and the injured people had been transferred to the hospital.
“It was the most violent earthquake I’ve experienced in my 21 years living in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands. I’ve seen many big earthquakes, never one like this,” he said.
The 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 35 miles off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu’s main island, at 12:47 local time, according to the US Geological Survey .
The ground floor of a building that houses the US, French and other embassies had been crushed under the upper floors, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction in social networks.
“That doesn’t exist anymore. It’s completely flat. The top three floors are still standing, but they’ve fallen,” Thompson said.
“If anyone was there at the time, then they’re gone.”
Thompson said the ground floor housed the U.S. Embassy, but that could not be immediately confirmed.
A photograph shows extensive damage to the building:
STR/AFP via Getty Images
The United States has closed the embassy until further notice, citing “considerable damage” to the mission, the American embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media. “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this earthquake,” the embassy said.
The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered “significant damage,” said a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office, adding that “New Zealand is deeply concerned about the significant earthquake in Vanuatu and the damage it has caused.”
Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu, said: “There are people in buildings in the town. There were bodies when we drove past.”
A landslide on a road had covered a bus, he said, “so obviously there are some deaths.”
The quake also collapsed at least two bridges and knocked out most cellphone networks, Thompson said.
“They are just doing a rescue operation. The support we need from abroad is medical evacuation and specialized rescue, (the kind of) people who can operate in earthquakes,” he said.
STR/AFP via Getty Images
Video footage released by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building where an exterior roof had collapsed onto several parked cars and trucks.
The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, footage showed.
Nibhay Nand, a Sydney pharmacist with business in the South Pacific, said he had spoken to staff in Port Vila who said most of the shop had been “destroyed” and other nearby buildings had “collapsed”. .
“We are waiting for everyone to get online to know how devastating and traumatic this will be,” Nand told AFP.
A tsunami warning was issued after the earthquake, with waves of up to three feet expected for some areas of Vanuatu, but was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the Seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches across Southeast Asia and the Pacific basin.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual Global Risk Report.