At least one person died in a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in Papua New Guinea on Sunday. The earthquake occurred 67 kilometers from the city of Kainantu and around 480 kilometers from the capital Port Moresby at a depth of 61 kilometers, according to the US Seismological Survey (USGS). In the meantime, the USGS issued a tsunami warning, but later lifted it.
According to MP Kessy Sawang, a mudslide buried and killed a man in the remote mountain village of Matoko. Other residents were flown to hospitals with serious injuries. There is “considerable damage” and buried people. Further injuries and deaths in towns in the Finisterre Mountains in the north of the country and in coastal regions are to be feared.
Papua New Guinea is located on what is known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions often occur there. In neighboring Indonesia, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Christmas 2004 that killed around 220,000 people in the entire region, around 170,000 of them in Indonesia.