Indonesia earthquake toll rises to 53 as Flores rescue work battles landslides

Ruteng,UPDATED: Aug 17, 2026 03:28 IST

Rescue teams in eastern Indonesia recovered six more bodies on Sunday, taking the death toll from a 7.7-magnitude earthquake to 53, while many of the thousands displaced by the disaster spent the night outdoors for fear of aftershocks.

Searches continued across six regencies on Flores, where landslides and damaged roads slowed access to some of the worst-hit areas. More than 900 homes were destroyed and 450 damaged in East Nusa Tenggara province, forcing about 5,000 people into temporary shelters, while residents fled in panic when tsunami warnings were issued after the quake and later lifted.

Rescuers were digging through debris for people buried under landslides triggered by the quake on the predominantly Catholic island. Search teams were focused on three regencies that had remained inaccessible — the hardest-hit Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo. "We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages, although communication disruptions and power outages continue to hamper search efforts," said Fathur Rahman, head of the search-and-rescue office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka regency.

The quake struck at a depth of 10 km shortly before 6 am local time on Saturday, according to the US Geological Survey. Authorities have since recorded at least 995 aftershocks, though only 46 were felt by residents, Abdul Muhari, the Disaster Management Agency's chief for disaster prevention, said. He added that 135 people were injured and that at least 241 homes were damaged in the Flores region alone.

Many residents in Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo Park, spent the night outside because of the aftershocks. "The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed," said farmer Anastasia Imad, speaking from a makeshift tent beside her damaged home. "We feared the aftershocks would bring it down on us while we slept." Landslides also blocked sections of the roughly 700-km Trans-Flores Highway, which links communities across the mountainous island.

Relief workers distributed rice, ready-to-eat meals, drinking water, blankets and medicine, and emergency shelters were set up for displaced residents. Authorities said restoring electricity and communications, and delivering aid to remote villages cut off by landslides, were among the biggest challenges. Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of seismic faults and volcanoes. Flores has seen some of the country's deadliest disasters, including a powerful earthquake and tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on the island. In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake triggered a tsunami on Sulawesi that killed more than 4,400 people, while a magnitude 9.1 quake off Sumatra in 2004 unleashed a tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Overall, the shallow quake on Saturday left 53 people dead, 135 injured and thousands displaced, with rescue teams still searching affected areas of Flores and aid workers trying to reach isolated communities.

With PTI Inputs

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