Search for survivors as 14 people were reportedly killed in earthquakes

The death toll of a earthquake The number of victims that hit Vanuatu on Tuesday rose to 14 as search teams dig through piles of rubble to locate survivors.

Two hundred more are being treated for their injuries and are affected by strong aftershocks 7.3 size A tremor was reported overnight.

The earthquake damaged buildings including the embassies of the United States, France, Britain and New Zealand. Electricity and cell phone services were also disrupted.

According to Vanuatu Police, a seven-day state of emergency has been declared to restrict the movement of the public during search and relief operations.

Four of the fatalities died in hospital in the capital Port Vila, the government said. Six of them came from a landslide, four from a collapsed building, which was expected to cause a further increase in tolls.

Two of the fatalities were Chinese nationals, Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang told state media.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst effects of the quake.

Neighboring Australia will send teams to help with search and rescue efforts, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told ABC News on Wednesday. The USA and France have also promised help.

Photos shared by Vanuatu police on Facebook showed rescuers hand-digging through rubble and crawling under the floors of collapsed buildings.

At least 10 buildings in Port Vila suffered “significant structural damage,” the government’s disaster management office said.

Rescuers heard the voices of at least three people from the rubble of a three-story building, Michael Thompson from Vanuatu told AFP.

Thompson said rescuers used “everything we could get our hands on” to save people, including jackhammers, grinders and concrete saws.

Images from state broadcaster VBTC showed that many shops in Port Vila were closed on Wednesday, debris was strewn on the pavement and some roads were cracked.

Some people could be seen searching for essential supplies.

The earthquake struck at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) on Tuesday and triggered a brief tsunami warning.

Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of around 80 islands in the South Pacific, lies west of Fiji and thousands of kilometers east of northern Australia.

The country lies in a seismically active area and is prone to frequent major earthquakes and other natural disasters.