Earthquake shakes the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, fatalities feared, US embassy damaged

A powerful earthquake struck the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, destroying buildings in the capital Port Vila, including one housing the embassies of the United States and other nations. A witness told Agence France-Presse about bodies being seen in the city.

Dan McGarry, a journalist with the Vanuatu-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, told Reuters in an interview that police said at least one person was killed and injured people were taken to hospital.

“It was the most powerful earthquake I have experienced in my 21 years of living in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands. I have seen many large earthquakes, never one like this,” he said.

According to the US Geological Survey, the magnitude 7.3 quake struck at 12:47 p.m. local time at a depth of 35 miles off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu’s main island.

The ground floor of a building housing the U.S., French and other embassies was submerged beneath higher floors, local resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.

“That doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but have sunk,” Thompson said.

“If there was anyone in there back then, they’re gone.”

Thompson said the ground floor was home to the U.S. Embassy, ​​but that could not immediately be confirmed.

A photo showed significant damage to the building:

The United States has closed the embassy until further notice, citing “significant damage” to the mission, the US Embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a statement on social media. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake,” the embassy said.

The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered “significant damage,” a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office said, adding: “New Zealand is deeply concerned about the severe earthquake in Vanuatu and the damage it has caused “caused.”

Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure company in Vanuatu, said: “There are people in the buildings in the city. There were bodies there when we walked by.”

A landslide on a road caught a bus, he said, “so obviously there are some dead people there.”

The quake also collapsed at least two bridges and disrupted most cell phone networks, Thompson said.

“They are currently proceeding with a rescue operation. The support we need from abroad is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, the type(s) of people that can be deployed in earthquakes,” he said.

Video footage released by Thompson and reviewed by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building whose exterior roof had collapsed onto a row of parked cars and trucks.

The city’s streets were littered with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, footage showed.

Nibhay Nand, a Sydney-based pharmacist with stores across the South Pacific, said he had spoken to staff in Port Vila who said most of the store had been “destroyed” and other buildings nearby had “collapsed”.

“We’re 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 quake, predicting waves of up to three feet for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

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 through Southeast Asia and the Pacific Basin.

According to the annual World Risk Report, Vanuatu is considered one of the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis.