At least 14 people have died and more than 200 have been injured after the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that shook Vanuatu on Tuesday, mainly affecting its capital, Port Vila, where rescue efforts continue, according to data from the Government of the oceanic country.
The Vanuatu Disaster Management Office said in a statement that There are “many injured and missing” and that the number of victims is expected to increase, with Port Vila as the place where the 14 people who are known to have died at the moment, some due to landslides that occurred after the earthquake.
At least ten buildings in the city, with less than 50,000 inhabitants, suffered “structural damage”, including those of the Embassy of the USA, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, The statement adds, in line with what the legations themselves already indicated the day before.
Port Vila airport is closed except for access by humanitarian assistance aircraft.
For its part, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated in a statement that an estimated 116,000 people throughout Vanuatu have been affected and that Telecommunications continue to be interrupted in part of the archipelago.
The damage caused to roads, bridges and other infrastructure also makes access to some areas difficult, he adds. Port Vila’s main hospital has also suffered damage and tents have been deployed outside to treat patients.
The earthquake occurred at 12:47 local time (02:47 in Spain) on Tuesday, with the epicenter located about 30 kilometers west of the capital of Vanuatu and at a depth of 57.1 kilometers under the seabed, according to the United States Geological Survey. , which records seismic activity around the world.
The Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC), for its part, raised the magnitude of the tremor to 7.4.
The VBTC television network, one of the few media that published images from the field, showed the day before how dozens of people went to a hospital in the capital in vans, cars and carried in the arms of third parties, as well as blocked roads and buildings and vehicles. destroyed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in its X account that it has deployed a team on the ground that assists the Vila Central Hospital and the Ministry of Health.
After the first strong tremor, At least two other aftershocks were recorded yesterday of 5.5 and 5.4The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Honolulu, initially activated the tsunami warning and later suspended it.
The archipelago of Vanuatu, with about 250,000 inhabitants, is located near the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire and the underwater volcanoes of the Lau Basin, which is why it regularly registers earthquakes of seismic origin.
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