Port Vila, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 18th Dec, 2024) Rescue teams dug for survivors trapped beneath crumpled buildings in Vanuatu on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck the capital Port Vila, leaving at least 14 people reported dead.
People called out from beneath the rubble of one three-storey shop in the city, where scores of rescuers worked through the night to find them, resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone.
“We got three people out that were trapped. Unfortunately, one of them did not make it,” he said.
About 80 people including police, medics, trained rescuers and volunteers were using excavators, jackhammers, grinders and concrete saws, “just everything we can get our hands on”.
When rescuers on the site went quiet, they could still hear three people within signalling they were alive on Wednesday morning, Thompson said.
“There’s tonnes and tonnes of rubble on top of them. And two rather significant concrete beams that have pancaked down,” he said. “Obviously they are lucky to be in a bit of a void.”
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck off Vanuatu’s main island at 12:47 pm local time (0147 GMT) Tuesday.
It flattened large buildings, cracked walls and windows, knocked down bridges, and set off landslides in the low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people.
