Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara(National Times)- Rescuers combed through debris for survivors after a powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia\u2019s Flores Island on Saturday, killing at least 38 people, according to a disaster official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suharyanto, head of Indonesia\u2019s national disaster mitigation agency, said 13 people were injured, two of them seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVictims are trapped in several buildings,\u201d said Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses one name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese will be the initial targets of the disaster response teams,\u201d he told a news conference, adding that two helicopters and a plane were being readied to assist in rescue operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen offered help from the bloc\u2019s Copernicus Earth observation satellites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEurope stands ready to deploy Copernicus, our eyes in the sky, to support search and rescue efforts. Indonesia, we stand with you,\u201d she wrote on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dozens of houses and other buildings were damaged when the 7.7-magnitude quake hit the popular tourist island in Indonesia\u2019s east.
Suharyanto said about 2,000 people had evacuated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have never felt an earthquake this big,\u201d Yulian Juita Ekalia, who lives in Ruteng city more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the epicentre, told AFP by telephone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt felt like we were on a trampoline; it was really scary,\u201d said the 37-year-old university lecturer, who was jolted awake at around 5:30 am (2130 GMT on Friday).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs I rushed to get outside, everything in the house fell down: the television, my son\u2019s trophies, the dish racks, suitcases on top of the wardrobes. When I got outside, my son and neighbours were already there, screaming in fear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rescue official Fathur Rahman told AFP the focus has shifted to locating victims who may be buried under rubble, but rescue efforts have been complicated by landslides cutting off roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents in Nagekeo, an area close to the epicentre, raced for higher ground as the sea retreated early Saturday \u2013 a possible sign of an approaching tsunami, AFP journalists witnessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a tsunami warning was lifted, authorities urged people not to return to damaged buildings for fear that aftershocks may bring them down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hundreds remained outside by lunchtime as dozens of aftershocks continued shaking the island, the strongest measured at a magnitude of 6.1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fleeing in panic
Yulian said she had dragged her stove outside and was cooking there, fearing further tremors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside a nearby hospital, she said she saw patients being treated under emergency tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeing images online of her university badly damaged, Yulian said she was \u201cgrateful that the quake happened on a Saturday morning when there was no campus activity\u2026 I can\u2019t imagine what it would have been like if it happened while we were all there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nagekeo resident Yohanes Babo, 56, said he was at a market when the earth started shaking in the early morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople were panicking, running here and there. We\u2019re evacuating for the time being\u2026 and trying to get to the hills,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The epicentre of the shallow quake was located just off the north coast of the island, US and Indonesian authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The extent of the damage is still being assessed. The area is largely rural with few, if any, high-rise buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Long queues of people were seen evacuating on foot, by motorbike and car, some piled into the back of pickup trucks, after the initial tsunami warning issued by Indonesia\u2019s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes due to its location in the Pacific \u201cRing of Fire\u201d, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flores was struck by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in 1992, which triggered a tsunami and resulted in around 2,500 deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A devastating 9.1-magnitude tremor in 2004 struck off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, about 170,000 of them in Indonesia, in one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that year, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Condolences
President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in the earthquake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn behalf of the people of Pakistan, the President extended heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and expressed solidarity with the Government and people of Indonesia in this difficult hour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further said that Pakistan was ready to extend all possible assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara(National Times)- Rescuers combed through debris for survivors after a powerful earthquake struck off Indonesia\u2019s Flores Island on Saturday, killing at least 38 people, according to a disaster official. Suharyanto, head of Indonesia\u2019s national disaster mitigation agency, said 13 people were injured, two of them seriously. \u201cVictims are trapped in several buildings,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n