{"id":855806,"date":"2026-08-15T05:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855806\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T05:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T05:32:09","slug":"strong-7-7-magnitude-earthquake-strikes-eastern-indonesia-killing-at-least-five-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/855806\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes eastern Indonesia, killing at least five | Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A powerful 7.7-magnitude quake struck eastern Indonesia<\/a> early on Saturday, killing at least five people, causing widespread panic and collapsing buildings and homes in a region prone to deadly earthquakes.<\/p>\n

Authorities had issued a tsunami warning, which has since been lifted, but there have been dozens of aftershocks, including one with a magnitude of 6.1.<\/p>\n

Tsunami waves of \u2060less than one metre (three feet) were recorded in several areas.<\/p>\n

Indonesian geophysics agency BMKG recorded the first quake at 4.58 am local time at a depth of 15 \u2060km (9 miles) in Indonesia\u2019s Flores region.<\/p>\n

The governor of East Nusa \u2060Tenggara province, Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena, told a press conference the five people died after rubble fell on them as they \u200bslept.<\/p>\n

The national disaster mitigation agency BNPB put the \u200ctoll at one dead and four \u200cinjured.<\/p>\n

A video on Facebook, verified by Reuters as being at a port in Maumere, shows parts of a building collapsed into dust and rubble as people scream and run in the street. Maumere is the main town in Sikka Regency on Flores Island in the east of Indonesia\u2019s vast archipelago.<\/p>\n

The epicentre of the quake was located off the north coast of Flores island, about 68km (42 miles) northwest of the coastal town of Ende, US and Indonesian authorities said.<\/p>\n

Residents in Nagekeo regency, the area closest to the epicentre, raced for higher ground immediately after the earthquake.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly it started to shake and I panicked,\u201d 31-year-old hospital customer service official, Lukas Lotar told AFP. \u201cPatients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

People flee their homes to seek safety after a earthquake in Talibura Village, Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara on 15 August 2026. Photograph: Arnold Welianto\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Nagekeo resident Yohanes Babo, 56, said he was at a market when the quake hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were panicking, running here and there. We\u2019re evacuating for the time being \u2026 and trying to get to the hills,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cMy family is safe. No one was harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities issued a tsunami warning but later lifted it when Indonesia\u2019s meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG) said monitoring showed no significant sea level changes that would pose a threat to coastal communities.<\/p>\n

Images broadcast on Indonesian television showed hundreds of people in nearby Nagekeo regency evacuating the area surrounded by the rubble of damaged buildings.<\/p>\n

The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.<\/p>\n

Yohanna Embu, a resident of Sikka, a regency within East Nusa Tenggara province, said a number of buildings were damaged by the strong shaking and panicked people ran to higher ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany buildings here were damaged \u2026 I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Houses were damaged by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Ruteng, Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara, on 15 August 2026. Photograph: SELO\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Indonesia, home to more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the \u201cRing of Fire\u201d, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.<\/p>\n

*With Agence France-Presse and Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A powerful 7.7-magnitude quake struck eastern Indonesia early on Saturday, killing at least five people, causing widespread panic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-855806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}