By Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila on Tuesday, damaging buildings and automobiles and killing at the least one individual.
Vanuatu’s state broadcaster confirmed footage of autos crushed when a constructing collapsed on a road lined with retailers. The channel reported that an individual was trapped in a collapsed constructing.
Different pictures posted on social media confirmed distorted home windows and collapsed concrete pillars on a constructing housing overseas missions within the capital, together with the embassies of the US, Britain, France and New Zealand .
A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Papua New Guinea stated its embassy in Port Vila had suffered “appreciable harm” and was closed till additional discover.
The New Zealand Excessive Fee constructing, which homes the American, French and British missions, “sustained important harm”, a Overseas Ministry spokesperson stated in an announcement.
There have been communications outages throughout the nation, the New Zealand assertion added, whereas the Australian Excessive Fee in Vanuatu stated its communications techniques had additionally been affected.
Police reported that at the least one individual was killed and a few injured have been taken to hospital, in keeping with Dan McGarry, a journalist with the Vanuatu-based Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture, in an article on X.
“I noticed three critically injured individuals on stretchers ready to be handled,” he stated.
“There’s important harm across the city. We’ve got a constructing that has collapsed,” McGarry advised the Australian Broadcasting Company in an interview.
The highway linking Port Vila to its predominant port was blocked by landslides, he added.
Reuters was not instantly in a position to verify the variety of casualties as Vanuatu authorities weren’t instantly obtainable for remark.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) stated the quake occurred at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).
The US tsunami warning system has canceled an preliminary tsunami warning for Vanuatu.
Authorities in the US, Australia and New Zealand stated there was no tsunami risk of their territories.
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