Indonesia, August 15, 2026: At least 38 people were killed and more than a dozen injured after a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Indonesia's coast early on Saturday, collapsing buildings, triggering landslides and sending frightened residents rushing to higher ground.
Authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for several provinces and urged people living along the coast to move to safer areas. The warning was later lifted after Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring showed no significant changes in sea level that could threaten coastal communities.
Shallow Quake Jolts Flores
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck Indonesia's Flores region at 5.58 am local time at a depth of 10 km. Its epicentre was 68 km north-northwest of Ende city in East Nusa Tenggara province. Several aftershocks followed the initial quake.
National Disaster Management Agency head Suharyanto said rescuers had recovered at least 38 bodies, mostly from the badly affected regencies of Sikka, Manggarai and East Manggarai. Sixteen bodies were pulled from a landslide in Reok village in Manggarai.
At least 13 people were taken to nearby hospitals, including two who suffered serious injuries.
Rescue Teams Race Against Time
Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said three helicopters and a rescue vessel had been deployed to help with logistics and emergency response operations. The resources could also assist with evacuations if required.
Rescue efforts face a difficult challenge because East Nusa Tenggara consists of numerous islands, making transport and access difficult. Suharyanto said about 2,000 villagers in Nagekeo regency had fled their homes and moved to temporary shelters.
East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said the earthquake caused severe damage and brought down buildings. Power outages in cities and villages hampered communication and complicated search and rescue operations.
"We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions," Darmoko said.
Landslides Cut Key Highway
Landslides triggered by the earthquake in Ende regency also cut off the Trans-Flores highway, according to Darmoko. The roughly 700-km paved mountain road stretches across Flores Island from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.
Local television footage showed patients being evacuated from several hospitals as a precaution after the earthquake. Hospital staff moved beds, IV stands, oxygen cylinders and other equipment outdoors and established temporary treatment areas.
The scenes underlined the scale of the disruption caused by the earthquake, with damaged infrastructure, power cuts and difficult terrain adding to the challenges facing emergency teams.
Buildings Damaged, Residents Flee
The earthquake was felt across much of Flores Island, with initial reports pointing to heavy damage.
Sikka regency resident Yohanna Embu said several buildings were damaged by the powerful shaking and frightened residents ran towards higher ground.
"Many buildings here were damaged... I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed," she said.
At St Peter Major Seminary in Sikka, students attending morning Mass fled after the roof of an assembly hall collapsed. The Rev Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, which is locally known as Ritapiret Seminary, said students and nuns ran out in panic, PTI reports.
"Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof," Tanga said. "At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake."
Flores is a predominantly Catholic island.
Tremors Felt Beyond Flores
The earthquake also reportedly caused panic in Labuan Bajo, the gateway town to eastern Indonesia's Komodo National Park, one of the country's best-known attractions.
Damage was also reported in Bima in neighbouring West Nusa Tenggara province and in parts of southern Sulawesi Island.
Indonesian authorities had initially issued the tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi provinces. Residents were told to stay away from beaches and riverbanks after the agency located the shallow undersea earthquake near Flores Island.
The subsequent withdrawal of the warning brought some relief, but the deaths, damaged buildings and disrupted transport showed once again how vulnerable Indonesia remains to major seismic disasters.
Indonesia's History Of Deadly Quakes
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is highly prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it lies on the "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin.
Flores itself has experienced a devastating earthquake and tsunami before. In 1992, a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that killed about 2,500 people on the island.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake generated a large localised tsunami that devastated coastal areas around Palu in eastern Indonesia. Liquefaction caused by the shaking turned entire neighbourhoods into rivers of sludge. More than 4,400 people were killed in the disaster, which struck the area around the Palu-Koro Fault.
In 2010, a 10-foot, or three-metre, wave struck the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra's western coast just minutes after a massive offshore earthquake. More than 400 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed.
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Indonesia also bore the brunt of one of the world's deadliest natural disasters in December 2004, when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people across a dozen countries.
Saturday's earthquake is another stark reminder of the persistent danger faced by communities living along one of the world's most active seismic zones.
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