The United States closed its embassy in Vanuatu after a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific island on Tuesday, causing “considerable damage” to the mission, the country's embassy in Papua New Guinea said.
“The US Embassy in Port Vila has suffered considerable damage and is closed until further notice,” he said in a statement on social media. “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this earthquake.”
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 57 kilometers, about 30 kilometers off the coast of Efate, the main island of Vanuatu, at 12:47 p.m., according to the United States Geological Survey.
As a result, the ground floor of a building that houses the U.S. and French embassies was crushed under the upper floors, said resident Michael Thompson. AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.
“There are people in the city buildings. There were bodies there when we passed by,” Thompson said.
A landslide on a highway covered a bus, he said, “so obviously there are some deaths there.”
The earthquake also collapsed at least two bridges, said Thompson, who runs a zip line business in Vanuatu, and the ground floor of a concrete building that housed diplomatic missions was leveled.
“That doesn't exist anymore. It's just completely flat. The top three floors still stand, but they've fallen,” he said. “If there was anyone there at the time, then they're gone.”
Most mobile networks had been cut, Thompson said.
“They are just proceeding with a rescue operation. The support we need from abroad is medical evacuation and qualified rescue, the type of people who can operate in earthquakes,” he said.
Video footage posted by Thompson and verified by AFP Footage showed uniformed rescuers and emergency vehicles working on a building whose exterior roof had collapsed onto several parked cars and trucks.
The city's streets were littered with broken glass and other debris from damaged buildings, the images showed.
A tsunami warning was issued after the earthquake, with waves of up to one meter (three feet) predicted for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
Waves less than 30 centimeters above tide level were forecast in other Pacific island nations, including Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 that straddles the seismic Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity that spans Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.
