In Vanuatu, the earthquake left at least fourteen dead and caused significant damage

Buildings destroyed or gutted, and a toll that continues to rise. While emergency services continue their search in the rubble on Wednesday, December 18, Vanuatu has not yet measured the extent of the scars caused by the 7.3 magnitude earthquake which struck the main island of this island on Tuesday. Pacific archipelago, where its capital Port Vila is located.

The head of the Red Cross in the Pacific, Katie Greenwood, gave an assessment of “fourteen dead confirmed and 200 injured treated at the main hospital in Port Vila”citing the local government. “Hospital infrastructure is damaged (…) Lots of damage to homes »she wrote.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs previously reported at least six deaths and estimated that 116,000 people could be affected by the consequences of the earthquake.

Tents were set up outside the damaged Port Vila hospital to accommodate the influx of patients, the UN said, adding that there were also significant disruptions in telecommunications and the two main water tanks had been damaged. The injured people were transported to the capital’s hospital in trucks. Other injured people were lying on stretchers outside or on chairs, according to images from public television VBTC.

The French embassy “destroyed”

Michael Thompson, a resident contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) via satellite phone, reported collapsed bridges, landslides and three people pulled out from under the rubble of a three-story business. destroyed. “Unfortunately, one of them did not survive”he testified.

The French embassy in Vanuatu was “destroyed” but the diplomatic staff is “safe and sound”announced, for his part, the French ambassador in a message posted on X. The United States embassy, ​​which was located in the same building, “has suffered considerable damage and is closed until further notice”said the American diplomatic mission in Papua New Guinea on the same network, specifying that all staff were also “safe and sound”.

France stands “alongside the Vanuatu authorities” and is willing “to contribute to relief operations” if they request it, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday.

Australia, Vanuatu’s largest neighbor, is deploying doctors and rescue teams by military planes on Wednesday, Defense Minister Richard Marles announced to the public channel ABC. New Zealand, for its part, took off a surveillance plane to assess the damage, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement, offering to send troops and supplies “once Port Vila airport has reopened”.

Many flights canceled or diverted

The epicenter of the earthquake detected Tuesday at 12:47 p.m. local time (2:47 a.m. in Paris) was recorded at a depth of 43 kilometers at sea, thirty kilometers west of Port Vila, according to the Institute of Studies United States Geological Survey (USGS). A 5.5 magnitude aftershock occurred a few minutes later, followed by a series of weaker tremors.

The earthquake led the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) to issue a tsunami alert, which has since been lifted. “Tsunami waves were observed”the organization said in a bulletin, after initially fearing the arrival of waves up to one meter high along certain coasts of Vanuatu.

Landslides occurred along a steep hill overlooking the international maritime terminal, according to images verified by AFP. The port buildings do not appear to have been damaged.

According to the online tracking site Flightradar, no more flights landed in Port Vila after the disaster. Australian Pacific airlines such as Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Airways and Fiji Airways have canceled or diverted flights to Vanuatu.

Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the Pacific Seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that stretches from Southeast Asia to the Pacific Basin . Vanuatu is ranked among the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual Global Risks Report.