A strong 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck near Vanuatu\u2019s capital Port Vila, damaging buildings and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The quake happened at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) at a depth of 57.1km, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).<\/p>\n
It briefly triggered a tsunami alert for parts of the Pacific island nation, but officials said as of 14:14 local time that the threat had passed.<\/p>\n
The extent of damage remains unclear, but there are unconfirmed reports of at least one death.<\/p>\n
Dan McGarry, a journalist living in Port Vila, said police at the Vila Central Hospital told him that one person has died.<\/p>\n
Posting on X, McGarry said he saw three people \u201cseriously injured\u201d on hospital gurneys awaiting treatment. The earthquake was the \u201cbiggest one I\u2019ve seen in 20+ years,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Footage on social media shows collapsed buildings, cars hit by fallen panels and furniture strewn on floors inside homes. Residents are reporting patchy communications.<\/p>\n
The US embassy in Port Vila is among the damaged buildings, according to photographs posted online.<\/p>\n
US officials said the building sustained \u201cconsiderable damage\u201d and will be closed until further notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur thoughts are with everyone affected by this earthquake and the US government will work with closely with our partners in Vanuatu,\u201d the embassy in Papua New Guinea said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Michael Thompson, director of the Vanuatu Jungle Zipline adventure company, told AFP news agency that he saw bodies lying in the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s multiple buildings that have come down around town. There\u2019s a big rescue operation on the way to clear out people who are possibly alive in the building,\u201d Mr Thompson said, in a separate video posted to Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the communications have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
USGS reported at least four aftershocks around Port Vila \u2013 with magnitudes ranging from 4.7 to 5.5 \u2013 in the two hours after the first earthquake.<\/p>\n
Authorities in neighbouring New Zealand and Australia said there was no tsunami threat for their countries.<\/p>\n
Australia also said it \u201cstands ready to support Vanuatu as the extent of the damage is assessed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cVanuatu is family and we will always be there in times of need,\u201d Foreign Minister Penny Wong wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of some 80 islands, is located in a seismically active area and susceptible to frequent large earthquakes and other natural disasters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A strong 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck near Vanuatu\u2019s capital Port Vila, damaging buildings and other infrastructure. The quake happened at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) at a depth of 57.1km, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It briefly triggered a tsunami alert for parts of the Pacific island nation, but officials said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}