PORT VILA – A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday (17), smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila including one used by foreign embassies, with a witness telling AFP of bodies lying in the city.

The 7.3-magnitude quake struck at a depth of 57 kilometres (35 miles), some 30 kilometres off the coast of Efate, Vanuatu’s main island, at 12:47 p.m. (0147 GMT), according to the US Geological Survey.

A 5.5-magnitude aftershock struck minutes later, followed by a string of lesser tremors – shaking the low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that lies in the quake-prone Pacific Rim of Fire.

The ground floor of a four-storey concrete block in Port Vila – used by US, French, British, Australian and New Zealand diplomatic missions – was flattened, AFP photos showed.

US and French embassy staff are safe, the two countries said. The United States closed its embassy until further notice. France said its mission was “destroyed”.

“There’s people in the buildings in town. There were bodies there when we walked past,” resident Michael Thompson told AFP by satellite phone after posting images of the destruction on social media.

A landslide on one road had covered a bus, he said, “so there’s obviously some deaths there”.

As well as destroying the ground floor of the diplomatic building, the quake also knocked down at least two bridges and toppled other buildings, Thompson said.

– ‘Completely flat’ –

The bottom floor of the embassy block “no longer exists,” he said.

“It is just completely flat. The top three floors are still holding but they have dropped.”

“If there was anyone in there at the time, then they’re gone,” said Thompson, who runs a zipline adventure business in Vanuatu.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there were unconfirmed reports of at least six dead and estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst impacts of the quake.

The hospital in Port Vila had been damaged, with tents set up outside for the influx of patients, it said, adding there was also significant disruption to telecommunications and the two main water reservoirs had been damaged.

“Immediate response efforts are ongoing as humanitarian partners and authorities work to overcome access and communication challenges,” it said in a situation update.

Some people injured in the quake were driven in flat-bed trucks to a Port Vila hospital where others lay in stretchers outside or sat on plastic chairs, their arms and heads wrapped in bandages, public television VBTC images showed.

Landslips sent tonnes of earth and large rocks tumbling down a steep hill over the international shipping terminal, images verified by AFP showed.

The port buildings did not appear to be damaged.

Australian and other regional airlines including Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, and Fiji Airways diverted or suspended flights — some citing reports of possible damage to the facilities and runway.

The quake cut off most mobile networks on the Pacific island, Thompson said.

– Broken glass, debris –

“They’re just cracking on with a rescue operation. The support we need from overseas is medical evacuation and skilled rescue, the kind of people that can operate in earthquakes,” he said.

Video posted by Thompson and verified by AFP showed uniformed rescuers working on a building that had collapsed, crushing parked cars and trucks below.

The streets of the city were strewn with broken glass and other debris from cracked buildings.

Nibhay Nand, a Sydney-based pharmacist with businesses across the South Pacific, said staff in Port Vila reported that most of the store there had been “destroyed” and other buildings nearby had “collapsed”.

“We are waiting for everyone to get online to know how devastating and traumatic this will be,” Nand told AFP.

A tsunami warning was issued after the quake, with waves of up to one metre (three feet) forecast for some areas of Vanuatu, but it was soon lifted by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

Australia stands ready to help, said Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

“Vanuatu is family and we will always be there in times of need,” she said in a statement.

Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, flooding and tsunamis, according to the annual World Risk Report.

-AFP