Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 53, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday.
Thirty-six people were seriously injured in the Saturday morning quake in East Nusa Tenggara province, while 77 had minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus told a televised meeting.
The quake, followed by some 341 aftershocks, is the Southeast Asian nation's worst in years. Hundreds died after a 2022 earthquake in West Java.
More than 3,300 people in the Sikka region self-evacuated or were stranded in a sports arena, said the disaster mitigation agency BNPB.
Some Sikka residents were stranded outside collapsed homes under a makeshift tent made out of tarp, while some people received treatment in a tent outside a hospital in the port town of Maumere.
"Almost all of Sikka's residents didn't dare stay indoors, so they slept on a porch or a tent outside," Simon Subandi, deputy regent of Sikka, told news channel KompasTV.
More than 3,500 military and police officers have been deployed to the region, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement.
Over 1,000 homes damaged, people trapped under rubble
Indonesia's search and rescue agency said rescuers were able to access parts of Maumere that had been blocked by landslides. Most of those missing were trapped under rubble, and more than 1,300 homes were damaged, BNPB said.
Twenty petrol stations were out of service due to power outages, state energy firm Pertamina said.
The East Nusa Tenggara government is considering declaring an emergency for the province, BNPB said, which would allow authorities to mobilize resources and funding.
The area of the quake was hit in 1992 by a magnitude-7.5 earthquake that caused extensive destruction, Indonesia's geophysics agency said.
Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago of 290 million people, straddles the "Pacific Ring of Fire," a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet and trigger frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The search will continue on Monday, authorities said.
Fathur Rahman, chief at the rescue office in Maumere, Sikka's capital, told Reuters on Monday the search will focus on aerial monitoring for anyone missing.
Rescuers will use an extrication device and a helicopter, Fathur said, adding there were no reports of people missing and no challenges hampering the search.
Authorities readied planes to deliver aid such as food and tents, the chief of the country's disaster mitigation agency Suharyanto said late on Sunday. The quake damaged around 500 homes, he said.
Indonesia will also build an emergency field hospital in several areas, said Benjamin Paulus Octavianus, the country's deputy health minister.
Neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons are needed to treat head trauma and broken bones, Benjamin said.
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