Powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia, forcing villagers to flee

By Hira Humayun, Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Flores Saturday morning, damaging buildings and shocking residents awake, forcing them to flee their homes.

The earthquake struck around 6 a.m. local time, about 68 kilometers northwest of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), and was followed by a series of aftershocks.

Indonesia’s national geophysics agency issued a tsunami warning – which was later lifted – and urged residents to seek higher ground, and stay away from beaches and coastlines, according to the Associated Press.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

About 500,000 people were exposed to very strong or severe shaking, which is capable of slight to moderate damage in well-built structures and serious damage in poorly built structures, according to the USGS.

The quake was felt across Flores, a lush and mountainous island in the Sunda chain, which also includes tourist hotspot Bali. Flores is known for its colorful volcanic lakes and as a gateway to Komodo National Park, home of the largest lizards on Earth. Its population of roughly 2 million is largely spread out in small villages.

Videos posted to social media showed buildings collapsing and panicked residents running and screaming, as dust filled the sky.

Students at the Roman Catholic St. Peter Major Seminary in the coastal village of Sikka were attending morning Mass when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, causing people to flee in panic, the seminary’s rector Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga said, according to AP.

“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.”

A 51-year-old resident of the town of Talibura said the quake was “massive,” and forced her family to rush out of their home.

“The quake was massive, the shock was so strong, we were resting at home with family. There were 13 of us inside the house and we all ran to save ourselves,” the resident, Nona, told Reuters news agency.

A 16-year-old living in the same area said it was the first time he had felt such a strong earthquake, adding he immediately ran to higher ground.

“I was shocked because of the earthquake. I was sleeping,” Yoan Rinto told Reuters. “Yes, am still panicking, still worrying a lot.”

An archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia is prone to seismic activity and has suffered several devastating earthquakes in the past. The country sits on the Ring of Fire, a band around the Pacific Ocean that sets off frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. The ring is one of the most seismically active areas in the world, spanning from Japan and Indonesia on one side of the Pacific to California and South America on the other.

The catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 was sparked when Indonesia’s Sumatra island was hit by a quake with a magnitude of 9.1. The resulting disaster killed more than 220,000 people along the ocean’s coasts, more than half of them in Indonesia.

More recently, hundreds were killed when a 6.9 earthquake hit the island of Lombok in August of 2018. Later that month a trio of intense earthquakes shook several islands in the South Pacific and Indonesia.

And in September of that year, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the island of Sulawesi, killing hundreds more.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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CNN’s Kareem El Damanhoury, Brandon Miller, Dakota Smith, Michael Rios and Jonny Hallam contributed to this report.