Two dead in Papua New Guinea quake
A strong earthquake struck offshore just north of Papua New Guinea early today, reportedly killing at least two people and ripping seaside homes from their foundations.
The earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale hit at 4.44am local time (7.44pm Irish time yesterday) north west of the coastal town of Wewak and 530 miles north west of the capital, Port Moresby, according to the Australian Geological Survey Organisation.
A spokesman for the Emergency Management Australia, the government’s emergency services agency, said the earthquake was believed to have been in the sea around 25 miles north west of Wewak.
“We don’t know the extent of it but we know the quake was in fairly shallow water,” he said.
Papua New Guinea’s national broadcaster, NBC, quoted an unnamed church official as saying that two people died in the quake. The broadcaster also said some coastal homes were ripped from their stilts by the quake.
Chief Sergeant James Japele from Wewak police could not confirm reports of any people dead.
He said that some homes and roads in the town had collapsed and the local hospital had been evacuated after cracks appeared in its foundations, but no deaths were reported.
Mr Japele said police were still trying to verify reports of further damage in the countryside closer to the centre of the quake.
The local police commander, area administrator and disaster control officials were meeting to coordinate emergency services in the area of the quake, he said.
An earthquake in the same area in 1998 caused a huge tidal wave, known as a tsunami, that killed about 1,600 people.
Australian Geological Survey Organisation spokesman Mark Leonard said today’s quake had not caused a large tsunami.
“There was a little tsunami recorded of about one metre (3.3 feet) and the lagoon that was destroyed a few years ago actually drained and filled again but there was no destructive tsunami,” Mr Leonard told Sydney radio station 2UE.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake is capable of causing widespread, heavy damage.
An impoverished Pacific nation of five million people north of Australia, Papua New Guinea is regularly hit by earthquakes but few cause major damage.
