Earthquake in Indonesia leaves 47 dead and 2 displaced. The search continues for the missing.

Digging continues through the rubble in Indonesia, searching for the missing and hoping to find survivors following the earthquake, the strongest recorded at magnitude 7.7 on the Richter scale, which killed at least 47 people on the eastern coast of the island of Flores. The latest toll was released this evening by Indonesia's national disaster management agency (BNPB), while rescue official Fathur Rahman stated that 50 people were injured in the quake and that the priority is finding the missing. Several people remain trapped under the rubble of numerous buildings, but the search is being complicated by landslides that have blocked several roads.  

According to the BNPB, nearly 160 homes, dozens of schools, health facilities, and other public buildings were damaged by the earthquake that struck the popular tourist island in eastern Indonesia. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement said preparations are underway to deliver aid to approximately 2,000 people sheltering in temporary shelters. The Jakarta government has already sent 50,000 aid packages weighing 275 tons to the area. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered the help of the Copernicus Earth observation satellites. "Europe stands ready to deploy Copernicus, our eyes in the sky, to support search and rescue operations. Indonesia, we are with you," she wrote on X. 

Many residents of Flores were left without electricity and telecommunications. The tsunami warning was lifted, but authorities urged residents not to return to damaged buildings for fear that aftershocks could cause them to collapse. Hundreds of people remained outdoors for hours, while dozens of aftershocks continued to shake the island, the strongest of which measured 6.1. According to the Indonesian geological agency BMKG, waves as high as 1,6 meters were reported in some coastal areas of Flores. 

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The epicenter of the shallow earthquake was located off the island's northern coast, according to U.S. and Indonesian authorities. The affected areas contained few multi-story buildings. A second, deep, onshore earthquake, with a magnitude of 6,9, was recorded near Pematangsiantar, on the island of Sumatra, thousands of kilometers away, about 12 hours after the Flores quake.  

Indonesia is prone to frequent earthquakes due to its location in the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of intense seismic activity extending from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin. In 1992, Flores was struck by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, which triggered a tsunami and killed approximately 2.500 people. In 2004, a devastating magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that killed 220 people across the region, including approximately 170 in Indonesia, in one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. 

(Adnkronos)