Powerful quake hits Papua New Guinea, at least 4 dead

PORT MORESBY: A 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook Papua New Guinea on Sunday (Sep 11), killing at least four people, injuring others and damaging property and essential infrastructure.

Residents in northern towns near the epicentre reported intense shaking mid-morning that cracked roads and sheared cladding off buildings.

While the government gave no death toll, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Asia and the Pacific said that at least 4 deaths and four injuries had been reported.

One person died in a landslide in Rai Coast, Madang, with three others buried in Wau, Morobe, the OCHA's PNG disaster management team said in a report posted on Twitter.

The regional power grid, Internet cables, and the regional highway were damaged, but the airport is operational, it said.

"There has been widespread damage," local member of parliament, Kessy Sawang, told AFP, adding that a landslide had buried homes and "split" one village where people had "lost their houses".

There are limited communications in the area, few government resources and paved roads, making assessment and rescue efforts difficult.

Small aviation companies and missionary groups were involved in airlifting some of the injured across the rugged jungle landscape.

The UN report said people had been injured by falling structures or debris, and there was damage to some health centres, homes, rural roads and highways.

"It's very difficult, the terrain, the weather. It's challenging," said Nellie Pumai of Manolos Aviation, which had transported one person out and was trying to return.

Papua New Guinea residents shared images and videos on social media of cracked roads, damaged buildings and cars, and items falling off supermarket shelves.

In the eastern highland town of Goroka, residents captured images of window awnings falling off the cracked walls of a local university.

It was "very strong", said Hivi Apokore, a worker at the Jais Aben Resort near the coastal town of Madang.

"Everything was like sitting on a sea - just floating."

State-backed communications provider PNG DataCo also reported an impact on its undersea cable network, resulting in widespread disruptions.

The quake was felt as far as the capital Port Moresby about 480km away.

The US Geological Survey initially issued a tsunami warning for nearby coastal areas, but subsequently said the threat had passed.

But fearful locals near the sea nevertheless fled for higher ground - reporting that the water level had suddenly dropped.

"MASSIVE"

The nation's leader James Marape said the quake was "massive" and told people to be cautious but said he expected the damage to be less than that from a 2018 quake which killed at least 126 people.

However, the scale of the damage and number of casualties was still unclear ion Sunday.

"National and provincial disaster agencies, as well as leaders, have been asked to assess the damage and injuries to people and attend to these as soon as possible," Marape said.

State-backed communications firm DataCo said it was experiencing "multiple service disruptions" to the operation of a domestic undersea communications cable as well as the PIPE Pacific Cable 1 that runs from Sydney to Guam.

It was not yet clear if there was any damage to regional airports.

The quake struck at a depth of 61km, about 67km from the town of Kainantu, according to the US Geological Survey.

Papua New Guinea sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", causing it to experience frequent earthquakes.

INDONESIA QUAKE

Earlier on Sunday the US Geological Survey also reported two strong quakes in the remote Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra in neighbouring Indonesia.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, but the tremor sent residents on the Mentawai Islands fleeing to evacuation centres set up last week following another quake.

The Indonesia quake was felt in the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, where residents left their homes after the tremor shook buildings, according to an AFP journalist.

In 2004 a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people throughout the wider region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.