Buildings Damaged, Cars Crushed After 7.3 Magnitude Earthquake In Vanuatu

A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific island of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one housing the US and other embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies seen in the city.

The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 57 kilometres (35 miles), some 30 kilometres off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu's main island, at 12:47 pm (0147 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey.

The ground floor of a building housing the US, French and other embassies had been crushed under higher floors, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.

"That no longer exists. It is just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but they have dropped," Thompson said. 

"If there was anyone in there at the time, then they're gone."

Thompson said the ground floor housed the US embassy. This could not be immediately confirmed.

The United States closed the embassy until further notice, citing "considerable damage" to the mission, the US embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a message on social media. 

"Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake," the embassy said.

The New Zealand High Commission, housed in the same building, suffered "significant damage", a statement from Foreign Minister Winston Peters' office said.

"New Zealand is deeply concerned about the significant earthquake in Vanuatu, and the damage it has caused."

Roof collapsed on cars

"There's people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past," said Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu.

A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, "so there's obviously some deaths there".

The quake also collapsed at least two bridges, and most mobile networks were cut off, Thompson said.

"They're just cracking on with a rescue operation. The support we need from overseas is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, kind of people that can operate in earthquakes," he said.

Video footage posted by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building where an external roof had collapsed onto a number of parked cars and trucks. 

The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, the footage showed. 

A tsunami warning was issued after the quake, with waves of up to one metre (three feet) forecast for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. 

Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.

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