Vanuatu Earthquake Caused 14 Deaths: Six Of Them Because Of Land Land Landslides

Landslides due to the earthquake in Vanuatu. (Twitter/@Deepak21939172)

JAKARTA - At least 14 people died, including two Chinese, and 200 others were injured as a result of the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that rocked Port Villa, the capital of Vanuatu here, as rescue teams searched on Wednesday.

interim Prime Minister Charlot Salwai said the national disaster committee had declared a state of emergency, imposing a seven-day curfew in the worst-affected area.

Yesterday's earthquake damaged commercial buildings, embassies and a hospital. Police Commissioner Vanuatu Robson Iavro in a video message, rescue efforts focused on the two collapsed buildings.

Three people trapped in a collapsed building are communicating with rescue teams, he said.

"We believe there are still many trapped inside," said Iavro.

Footage posted on social media showed vehicles destroyed under the rubble, large rocks strewn across highways, and landslides near Port Villa's international delivery terminal.

Meanwhile, national broadcaster VBTC shows people queuing up to get fuel and basic necessities.

Australian Michael Thompson, who runs theUSH line adventure business in Vanuatu, said he had helped get people out of the rubble at night.

"Three people have been successfully released alive, with one person in a very serious state of extraordinary courage shown with people entering limited space to make a save," Thompson said in a post on Facebook.

"On the other hand, a woman who was successfully removed from the rubble later died," said Iavro.

Electricity, water, and communication are still cut off, government and energy officials said. Emergency tents have been established outside Port Villa hospitals to deal with the influx of patients.

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Office said ten buildings in the main city of Port Villa suffered severe structural damage.

Not only that, but concrete pillars in buildings where foreign missions in the capital city, including the United States, UK, French and New Zealand Ammerika Embassys, collapsed due to the devastating earthquake.

Basil Leodoro, an emergency doctor in Vanuatu with health emergency response firm Respond Global, said in a post on social media, two buildings - the Billabong House and a Chinese store - had collapsed, with rescue teams trying to save people.

Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang told state media on Wednesday that two Chinese nationals had died in the earthquake.

Of the 14 confirmed deaths, six people died from landslides, four in the collapsed Billabong building and four at the Vila Central Hospital, the National Disaster Management office said in a report.

Several aftershocks, including one 6.1-scale Richter earthquake, rocked Vanuatu overnight.

Port Villa international airport will be closed to commercial airlines for 72 hours, to allow medical and emergency aircraft to land, Airports Vanuatu CEO Jason Rakau told VBTC.

The United Nations office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination estimates that 116,000 people, about a third of the country's population, have been affected by the earthquake.