A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off Flores island in eastern Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 38 people, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Rescuers were still combing through collapsed buildings hours after the quake, while landslides cut off the island’s main highway.
Toll Climbs Through the Day
BNPB head Suharyanto confirmed the death toll at an online briefing in Jakarta on Saturday afternoon, reporting 38 fatalities alongside two people seriously injured and 11 with minor injuries. Around 2,000 residents had also left their homes on their own accord. Suharyanto cautioned that the figures remain provisional, with verification still under way district by district.
The toll rose steadily through the day — officials first reported one death, then five, then 14, before East Nusa Tenggara Governor Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena announced 33 fatalities by mid-afternoon. BNPB’s subsequent count of 38 showed East Manggarai bearing the heaviest losses with 17 deaths, followed by Manggarai with 16.
Rescuers Work Without Power
The earthquake struck at 05:58 local time. Basarnas, the national search and rescue agency, deployed teams to Nagekeo and Sikka within hours. Crews pulled three people from the collapsed terminal at Maumere’s Laurentius Say port, though one later died — an evacuation confirmed by Basarnas deputy for operations Edy Prakoso.
Power outages have hampered the response, while landslides in Ende have blocked the roughly 700-km Trans-Flores highway connecting Labuan Bajo to Larantuka. Hospitals in Ruteng and Maumere were forced to move patients outdoors, setting up beds and oxygen cylinders in open areas. Manggarai’s local disaster agency has recorded 305 damaged public facilities, 280 of them severely damaged.
Among the incidents reported, students at St Peter Major Seminary in Sikka were attending morning Mass when a hall roof collapsed. The seminary’s rector, Rev Guidelbertus Tanga, said students and nuns fled in panic as the roof came down, and that one priest broke a leg jumping from an upper floor.
Jakarta Sends Ministers and Aid
President Prabowo Subianto has ordered ministers to the island. Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said 50,000 packages of basic necessities had been sent to Maumere as presidential aid. Prabowo also dispatched Basarnas chief Mohammad Syafii and BNPB head Suharyanto to Labuan Bajo to oversee the response.
Vice-President Gibran Rakabuming Raka offered condolences to those affected in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province.
Tsunami Warning Lifted
Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency, BMKG, issued its first tsunami alert just over two minutes after the shaking began, before lifting the warning at 07:30 WIB. Tide gauges recorded a maximum sea-level rise of 0.94 metres at Maurole in Ende.
BMKG has traced the quake to the Flores Back-Arc Thrust. Some technical details remain disputed between agencies: BMKG puts the depth at 15 km, while the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates 10 km. BMKG had counted 37 aftershocks by 07:07, while BNPB later cited 31 aftershocks as of 3pm.
Flores Has Been Here Before
The region has a grim precedent. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami killed roughly 2,500 people on Flores in December 1992. BMKG’s earthquake and tsunami director, Wijayanto, noted that the same fault system is capable of producing quakes up to magnitude 7.9, and that after nearly three decades, it has once again released a large amount of seismic energy.
Komodo airport in Labuan Bajo continues to operate normally, though flights to Ende remain cancelled.