Rescuers are searching for survivors of the earthquake in Vanuatu

Rescuers in Vanuatu are scrambling to find survivors trapped in buildings, a day after a Earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 an attack was made on the capital of Port Vila, 14 people were killed.

At least 200 people were injured in Tuesday’s quake, with many of the casualties concentrated around a few buildings in the city center.

One witness, who was inside Vanuatu’s tallest building when the quake struck, told the BBC that he and his wife “ran” outside, adding that “if it had gone on for another 10 seconds, I wouldn’t be talking to you today “.

A seven-day state of emergency was declared to restrict public movement during the rescue efforts, police said.

Glenn Craig, chairman of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council, told the BBC he was in “good spirits” and enjoying the Christmas holidays with his wife on Tuesday when the earthquake struck – catching them by surprise.

“We (in Vanuatu) are used to disasters… you can usually hear earthquakes coming; you hear a hum or a deep rumble. But we had no warning about this one – there was just a sudden hum. It was next level, it was like a once in a generation thing.”

At least 10 buildings in Port Vila suffered “extensive structural damage”, the government’s disaster management office said. The aftershocks caused by the earthquake also knocked out power and mobile communications.

Mr Craig said one building, which housed several embassies, including the US embassy and the British High Commission, was particularly hard hit.

“This building is just awesome,” he said. “There were about seven or eight buildings (in the area) that suffered catastrophic failure, and I expect the death toll to rise.”

A flurry of aftershocks were also reported overnight.

“Lots of aftershocks all night,” Australian Caroline Bird, who runs a resort in Port Vila, told ABC News. “I probably (can’t) even count how many.”

Six victims died as a result of the landslide, four more were in the collapsed building during the earthquake. The death toll is expected to rise.

Two of the 14 victims were Chinese nationals, Chinese ambassador to Vanuatu Li Mingang told state media.

Photos posted by Vanuatu police on Facebook show rescuers manually picking through rubble and crawling under the floors of collapsed buildings.

Michael Thompson was among those who worked through the night to search for survivors.

He said on Facebook that three people were rescued from the building overnight, but later told news outlets that one of them later died.

Mr Thompson added that rescue teams urgently needed jackhammers, excavators and cold drinking water, adding that many rescuers were “working through the night”.

According to estimates of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, about 116,000 people may be affected by the earthquake.

However, according to Mr Craig, most of the damage was confined to one particular area. The outskirts of Vanuatu were largely unaffected, as were most people living outside the capital, he added.

“We’re used to hurricanes causing problems like food shortages, affecting housing. This time, that’s not the case,” he said.

“But normally we don’t have that many deaths from natural disasters – so fatalities at this level are not normal for us.”

Neighboring Australia will send teams to help with search and rescue efforts, while the US and France have also pledged to help.

The earthquake struck at 12:47 local time (01:47 GMT) on Tuesday and triggered a brief tsunami warning.

Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of about 80 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, is located west of Fiji and thousands of kilometers east of northern Australia.

Vanuatu is located in a seismically active zone and is prone to frequent strong earthquakes and other natural disasters.

“We had Covid, then we had three cyclones last year. So this is really the last thing we need,” Mr Craig said. “But I think there will be some semblance of normalcy by Thursday.

“Tomorrow the banks will open, we need equipment from Australia to get the internet back, which we’ll get soon, and the power will be back in a few days. So we’re suffering now, but we’ll get through it.”