Rescuers hunt for survivors in Vanuatu quake, nine dead

Port Vila: Rescue teams dug for survivors trapped in crumpled buildings in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake killed at least nine people, burying some in rubble and landslides.

People called out from beneath the remains of a flattened three-storey shop in the capital Port Vila, where scores of rescuers worked through the night to find them, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone.

“We got three people out that were trapped. Unfortunately, one of them did not make it,” he said.

About 80 people including police, medics, trained rescuers and volunteers used excavators, jackhammers, grinders and concrete saws, “just everything we can get our hands on”.

When rescuers on the site went quiet, they could hear three people within signalling they were alive on Wednesday, Thompson said.

“There’s tonnes and tonnes of rubble on top of them. And two rather significant concrete beams that have pancaked down,” he said. “Obviously they are lucky to be in a bit of a void.”

AFP photos showed rescuers using heavy machinery to claw away rubble from the squashed concrete remains of a building, dust clouding the air.

The 7.3-magnitude quake struck off Vanuatu’s main island at 12:47 pm local time (0147 GMT) on Tuesday.

State of emergency

It flattened large buildings, cracked walls, shattered windows and set off landslides in the low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people, which lies in the quake-prone Pacific Rim of Fire.

A string of aftershocks has since shaken the Pacific island nation.

Vanuatu declared a seven-day state of emergency “due to the severe impacts”, along with a curfew from 6 pm-6 am.

Australia and New Zealand flew in medical and search-and-rescue personnel on military transport aircraft - including a 64-person Australian team with two search dogs.

Nine people have been confirmed dead by Port Vila’s hospital and that number is likely to rise, said an update by Vanuatu’s disaster management office.

The office had earlier said at least 14 people were killed. A government spokesperson was unable to immediately explain the change.

Two of the dead were Chinese citizens, the country’s ambassador to Vanuatu told Chinese television.

The quake caused “major structural damage” in more than 10 buildings, including the main hospital, while also hitting three bridges and power lines, the disaster office’s report said.

Water reserves destroyed

Two major water reserves supplying Port Vila had been “totally destroyed”.

Mobile communications were “functional with intermittent disruptions”, it said.

Port Vila’s main wharf was closed “due to a major landslide”.

The airport was “not operational” but could handle incoming humanitarian aid, the report said.

French engineers set up satellite communications at the airport and declared the runway operational, said the French ambassador Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer.

The ground floor of a four-storey concrete block in Port Vila - used by the US, French, British, Australian and New Zealand diplomatic missions - collapsed, AFP photos showed.

US, French and Australian staff members who were inside are safe, the three countries have said.

Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu, said he had seen at least three bodies in the city.

‘We could hear screams’

He drove near the airport past a toppled four-storey block shortly after the quake. Its ground floor had collapsed under the upper storeys.

“When we slowed down with the windows down, we could hear screams coming from inside,” he said.

The quake crushed four large buildings in Port Vila and triggered landslides including one that covered a bus, Thompson said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst impacts of the quake.

“People are still hanging out in parks and some areas because they are afraid to go back home for fear of the aftershocks and more earthquakes,” said Rebecca Olul, a local official with the UN children’s charity UNICEF.

Concerns were mounting over access to fresh water and the challenge now would be ensuring people are safe while finding those who are missing, she told AFP.

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.