At least 20 people dead after magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Indonesia's coast

At least 20 people have died after a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early on Saturday, collapsing buildings and homes.

Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning after Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that posed a threat to coastal communities.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck Indonesia’s Flores region at a depth of 10 kilometres at 5.58am local time.

Its epicentre was 42 miles north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.

The initial quake was followed by several aftershocks.

The head of the Maumere Search and Rescue Agency, Fathur Rahman, said rescuers have recovered at least 20 bodies across the three devastated regencies of Sikka, West Manggarai, and East Manggarai, including eight bodies pulled from a landslide in the village of Reok in Manggarai.

Six people were rushed to nearby hospitals with severe injuries.

Rahman said rescuers were still searching for two villagers believed to be buried under tonnes of mud after a landslide was triggered by the earthquake.

People clear up the rubble from a house damaged in the earthquake. / Credit: AP

Footage on local television showed patients being evacuated from several hospitals as a precaution after the quake.

Hospital staff moved equipment outdoors, including beds, IV stands, and oxygen cylinders, and set up temporary treatment areas.

Students at St Peter Major Seminary in Sikka fled in panic while attending morning Mass after the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, according to the seminary’s rector, the Reverend Guidelbertus Tanga.

“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.”

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin.

In 2010, a 10-foot wave struck the Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra, just minutes after a powerful offshore earthquake. More than 400 people were killed, and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.