Magnitude 7.7 earthquake on the island of Flores, at least twenty dead

An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 has struck eastern Indonesia. The provisional toll given by rescuers is at least twenty dead and six injured.

The quake was recorded at 5.58 in the morning local time, 23.58 in Switzerland, with its epicentre 68 kilometres from the town of Ende on the island of Flores, in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. The reading came from the US Geological Survey. A series of aftershocks followed, one of them of magnitude 6.1.

"According to the information we have received, 20 people have died," said Fathur Rahman, a rescue official in Maumere. At least two people are buried under rubble and the search is continuing. Several buildings collapsed and others are cracked to the point of being unusable.

A tsunami warning that lasted hours

The authorities issued a tsunami warning immediately after the quake and lifted it during the morning. "But we will keep monitoring the sea level," said Wijayato, an official of the national geophysics agency.

Lukas Lotar, who manages patient care at a hospital in the area, described the moment of the quake: "All of a sudden it started shaking and I panicked." In Ruteng, 158 kilometres west of the epicentre, Yulian Juita Ekalia, 37, said she had never felt an earthquake of that magnitude.

The Indonesian archipelago lies on the Pacific ring of fire, the belt where most of the planet's seismic and volcanic activity is concentrated. Flores was hit in 1992 by a quake of similar size, followed by a tsunami that killed more than two thousand people. The warning system has been rebuilt since then, and the speed with which the alert was issued and then lifted suggests it worked as intended.