A strong 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Flores island in Indonesia early Saturday, killing not less than 20 folks and damaging buildings and houses.
The quake, which additionally triggered a short tsunami warning, hit the Flores area with a depth of 10 kilometres at 5:58 am Indonesia time and the epicentre was 68 km north-northwest of town of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, as per the US Geological Survey.
A number of movies on social media confirmed buildings collapsing and other people operating in panic.
BUILDINGS SWAY VIOLENTLY and CRUMBLE as 7.7 MONSTER QUAKE ROCKS INDONESIA https://t.co/qMl0QaNyzT pic.twitter.com/fvePye9AJo
— RT (@RT_com) August 14, 2026
A resident in Nagekeo mentioned he was at a market when the earth began shaking.
“The shaking was sturdy. Fortunately, we have been already exterior the home,” he advised the information company AFP.
“Folks have been panicking, operating right here and there. We’re evacuating in the intervening time… and attempting to get to the hills,” he mentioned, including: “My household is secure. Nobody was harmed,” he added.
A 31-year-old hospital customer support official mentioned he “panicked when it instantly began to shake”.
“Sufferers additionally fled the hospital, the jolt was large. I noticed some partitions have been cracked,” he mentioned.
A resident of Sikka, a regency inside East Nusa Tenggara province, mentioned a lot of buildings have been broken.
“Many buildings right here have been broken … I noticed that the ready room on the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she advised the information company AP.
Pacific tsunami alert panicked mass evacuations as huge 7.7 quake downs infrastructure pic.twitter.com/5tZctEVI64
— RT (@RT_com) August 15, 2026
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Company (BMKG) had earlier warned of the opportunity of tsunami waves following the quake and urged folks to get to larger floor.
“We strongly urge our communities alongside the northern coast of Flores and within the southern components, on the southern islands and throughout the southern area, to hold out self-evacuation instantly,” Abdul Muhari, an official on the nationwide catastrophe company, BNPB, mentioned.
Residents ought to “transfer away from the shore, both by going greater than two kilometres inland or by shifting up into hilly areas greater than 10 metres excessive”, he advised native broadcaster Kompas TV.
Folks evacuated from a constructing collapse at Jayakarta lodge following an earthquake of magnitude 7.7, in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Photograph Credit score: REUTERS
The tsunami warning was later lifted.
In 1992, a magnitude 7 earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed about 2,500 folks on the southeastern island of Flores, a part of a gaggle of islands within the jap half of Indonesia.
Why Indonesia Is Susceptible To Earthquakes
Indonesia, an enormous archipelago of greater than 17,000 islands, and neighbouring international locations expertise frequent earthquakes as a consequence of their location within the Pacific “Ring of Fireplace” — an arc of intense seismic exercise stretching from Japan by means of Southeast Asia and throughout the Pacific basin.
Amongst Indonesia’s historical past of lethal quakes is a devastating 9.1-magnitude tremor in 2004 that struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 all through the area, together with about 170,000 in Indonesia.
In 2018, a strong quake shook the island of Lombok, and a number of other extra tremors adopted over the following couple of weeks, killing greater than 550 folks on the vacation island and neighbouring Sumbawa.
(With company inputs)
