A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Flores Island in eastern Indonesia early Saturday, the US Geological Survey and Indonesian authorities said, triggering a tsunami warning and prompting hundreds of people to evacuate coastal areas. The shallow quake’s epicentre was located off the island’s north coast, about 68 kilometres (42 miles) northwest of Ende, USGS reported.
The initial jolt was followed by strong aftershocks in the same area, including one measured at magnitude 6.1. “Suddenly it started to shake and I panicked,” hospital customer service official Lukas Lotar, 31, told AFP. “Patients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked,” he said.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) warned the quake could generate tsunami waves. “Tsunami modelling results indicate that this earthquake has the potential to generate a tsunami in the provinces of East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and West Nusa Tenggara,” BMKG earthquake and tsunami director Wijayanto said. Authorities issued alerts for possible waves ranging from 0.5 metres to three metres (1.6 to 9.8 feet). Officials later reported no immediate casualties and detected tsunami waves between 19 and 30 centimetres in some locations.
An AFP correspondent said residents in the town of Maumere on Flores were evacuating to higher ground and that the sea in parts of the area could be seen receding, a phenomenon often observed before tsunamis. Indonesian television broadcasts showed hundreds of people evacuating in nearby Nagekeo regency, along with images of damaged buildings.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a belt of intense seismic activity, and frequently experiences powerful earthquakes. The country has a recent history of deadly tremors and tsunamis, including the 2004 Sumatra quake and tsunami that killed around 220,000 people across the region, a 2018 series of quakes in Lombok that killed more than 550 people, and a 2018 quake and tsunami in Palu that left thousands dead or missing. BMKG and international agencies said they were continuing to monitor the situation and update tsunami and seismic alerts as more data became available.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/7-7-magnitude-earthquake-hits-indonesia-tsunami-warning-issued-11912286#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-08-15 05:13:00
