A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Sunday, damaging buildings and triggering landslides and killing at least five people and seriously injuring several others.
Residents in northern towns near the epicenter reported intense mid-morning tremors that cracked roads and shook the siding of buildings.
Local MP Kessy Sawang said at least two people had died in remote mountain villages and four others had been airlifted to hospital in critical condition.
“There was widespread damage,” she told AFP, adding that a landslide buried homes and “split” a village where people “lost their homes.”
In nearby Wau, Koranga Alluvial Mining said three miners were buried alive.
There are limited communications in the area, few government resources, and very few paved roads, making assessment and rescue efforts difficult.
Small air carriers and mission groups were involved in transporting some of the injured across the rugged jungle landscape.
“It’s very difficult, the terrain, the weather. It’s a challenge,” said Nellie Pumai of Manolos Aviation, who had transported one person out and was trying to return.
In the eastern highland town of Goroka, local residents took pictures of window awnings falling from the cracked walls of a local university.
It was “very strong,” said Hivi Apokore, a worker at Jais Aben Resort near the coastal town of Madang.
“Everything was like sitting on a sea – just swimming.”
The earthquake was felt as far away as Port Moresby, the capital, about 480 kilometers away.
The US Geological Survey initially issued a tsunami warning for nearby coastal areas but later said the threat had passed.
But fearful locals near the sea still fled to higher ground – and reported that the water level had suddenly dropped.
– ‘Firmly’ –
The nation’s leader James Marape said the quake was “massive” and urged people to be careful, but said he expected damage to be less than a 2018 quake and a string of aftershocks, in which an estimated 150 people lost their lives.
However, the extent of the damage and the number of victims of Sunday’s quake were still unclear.
“National and regional disaster management agencies and leaders have been asked to assess the damage and injuries to people and take care of it as soon as possible,” Marape said.
State-backed communications company DataCo said it has experienced “multiple service disruptions” in the operation of a domestic undersea communications cable as well as the PIPE Pacific Cable 1, which runs from Sydney to Guam.
It was still unclear whether there was damage to regional airports.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck at a depth of 61 kilometers (38 miles), about 67 kilometers from the city of Kainantu.
Papua New Guinea lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which results in frequent earthquakes.
Earlier Sunday, the US Geological Survey also reported two powerful tremors on the remote Mentawai Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in neighboring Indonesia.
