The death toll from the magnitude-7.7 earthquake in eastern Indonesia has risen to at least 53, with around 5,000 people displaced, roads blocked and landslides continuing to obstruct rescue teams (Al Jazeera; NPR; Geo News).
The quake struck off the coast of Flores island at about 6am local time on Saturday, roughly 68 kilometres north-west of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Rescue teams have still not reached Nagekeo, the region closest to the epicentre, where landslides have blocked roads and disrupted communications — meaning the toll is being counted without the worst-affected area included.
Thirty-six people were seriously injured in Saturday morning’s quake in East Nusa Tenggara province and 77 suffered minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus said. Some 341 aftershocks followed. It is Indonesia’s deadliest earthquake since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java.
More than 3,300 people in the Sikka region either self-evacuated or sheltered in a sports arena, the disaster mitigation agency BNPB said. Residents were left outside collapsed homes under makeshift tarpaulin shelters, with some treated in a tent outside a hospital in the port town of Maumere.
“I only brought my body,” Abdul Mutas, 63, told Reuters after he and his family slept on a tarpaulin among trees in the town of Sikka. “The tides were rising, so we ran.”
“Almost all of Sikka’s residents didn’t dare stay indoors, so they slept on a porch or a tent outside,” deputy regent Simon Subandi told KompasTV.
More than 3,500 military and police personnel have been deployed, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said. Rescuers have reached parts of Maumere that landslides had cut off. There was no immediate count of the missing, though most were believed trapped under rubble. More than 900 homes were destroyed and a further 450 damaged. State energy firm Pertamina said 20 petrol stations were out of action because of power cuts.
