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.”
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck off Vanuatu’s main island at 12:47 pm local time (0147 GMT) on Tuesday.
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 6pm-6am.
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.