PORT VILA, Vanuatu: Rescue groups dug for survivors trapped in crumpled buildings within the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Wednesday (Dec 18) after a strong earthquake killed no less than 14 individuals, a few of them buried in rubble and landslides.
Folks known as out from beneath the stays of a flattened three-storey store within the capital Port Vila, the place scores of rescuers labored via the night time to search out them, resident Michael Thompson advised AFP by satellite tv for pc telephone.
“We obtained three individuals out that have been trapped. Sadly, one in every of them didn’t make it,” he mentioned.
About 80 individuals together with police, medics, educated rescuers and volunteers used excavators, jackhammers, grinders and concrete saws, “simply every thing we will get our palms on”.
When rescuers on the location went quiet, they may hear three individuals inside signalling they have been alive on Wednesday morning, Thompson mentioned.
“There’s tonnes and tonnes of rubble on high of them. And two somewhat important concrete beams which have pancaked down,” he mentioned. “Clearly they’re fortunate to be in a little bit of a void.”
The 7.3-magnitude quake struck off Vanuatu’s important island at 12.47 pm native time (9.47am, Singapore time) on Tuesday.