At least one person died Sunday during a 7.6 magnitude earthquake. The authorities say they feared that the human assessment is no longer heavy in the villages located in the Massif des Monts Finisterre and certain regions of the coast.
Le Monde with AFP
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake in eastern Papua New Guinea, Sunday, September 11, made at least one dead and several seriously injured and caused damage to buildings.
MP Kessy Sawang reported on his Facebook account of a dead person in his constituency, buried under a mud torrent, in Matoko, a village located in the mountains. People, seriously injured, were transported by plane to a hospital, she added. The “damage is important,” said the elected official, saying to feared that the human assessment is no longer heavy in the villages located in the Massif des Monts Finisterre and certain regions of the coast. “People and Houses have been buried and destroyed,” she added.
In the city of Goroka, located in the mountainous region of the east of the country, images sent by residents to the France-Presse agency or published on social networks have shown blinds and windows standing out from University walls cracked by the shock.
[In progress] – The University of Goroka was damaged while a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 A F… https://t.co/10rzny4epx
of the inhabitants of Madang and Lae, cities near the epicenter, said that the shock had been particularly powerful. “Very strong”, even said Hivi Apokore, who works in a tourist establishment, the Jais ABEN Resort, near Madang: it was as if “everything was as on the surface of the sea, floating”.
The earthquake was felt to the capital, Port Moresby, located about 480 kilometers. The American Institute of Geological Studies (USGS), which initially issued a tsunami alert, quickly lifted it. However, the USGS reported that there could be “minor fluctuations in sea level in certain coastal areas”.
Call for caution
The Prime Minister, James Marape, urged the population to remain cautious and to take refuge on the heights. He expressed his concern after this “important” earthquake, saying that the extent of human or material damage had not yet been established in the most affected regions. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 61 kilometers, about 67 kilometers from the city of Kainantu, reported the USGS.
Papua New Guinea, which includes the eastern part of the island of New Guinea and many other islands, is on the “Fire belt” of the Pacific, hot spot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
In 2018, an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 had struck the damaged region of the country’s highlands, triggering landslides that have buried houses and killed at least 125 people. On Saturday, a series of seismic tremors struck the Indonesian province of Papua, located on the western part of the island of New Guinea, without making victims or damage. In 2004, an earthquake of magnitude 9.1 in Indonesia had sparked a tsunami which had killed 220,000 people in the region, including around 170,000 in Indonesia.