One dead in massive Papua New Guinea quake

Port Moresby: A 7.6 magnitude earthquake rattled Papua New Guinea Sunday, damaging buildings, triggering landslides and killing at least one person, with several more severely injured.

Residents in northern towns near the epicentre reported intense shaking mid-morning — cracking roads and shearing cladding off buildings.

Member of parliament Kessy Sawang reported that in the remote mountain village of Matoko one person was buried in a mud fall and had died, with several others seriously injured and airlifted to hospital.

She said there had been “major damages” and fears of more “injuries and deaths” in villages along the Finisterre range and in some coastal areas.

There were “people and houses buried and destroyed,” she said.

In the eastern highland town of Goroka, images showed window awnings falling off the crack-riven walls of the local university.

It was “very strong,” said Hivi Apokore, a worker at the Jais Aben Resort near Madang told AFP. “Everything was like sitting on a sea — just floating.”

The quake was felt as far away as the capital Port Moresby, at a distance of about 300 miles (480 kilometres).

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

Regardless, fearful locals in coastal areas fled for higher ground — reporting that the sea level had suddenly dropped.

The nation’s leader James Marape urged people to remain cautious and head to higher ground. Marape added the scale of the damage, or any injuries was still unclear — with several regions affected.

The quake struck at a depth of 61 kilometres (38 miles), about 67 kilometres 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.

In neighbouring Indonesia, in 2004 a 9.1-magnitude quake triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia.

Earlier Sunday, the US Geological Survey also reported two strong earthquakes in the remote Mentawai Islands off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of 20 kilometres at around 6.10 am local time (2310 GMT), closely followed by a 5.7-magnitude quake at a shallower depth of 10 kilometres minutes later.

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