[Anchor]
A series of powerful earthquakes, measuring around magnitude 7, have struck off the coast of Indonesia. On Flores Island, which was battered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake, more than 300 aftershocks have followed, pushing the death toll past 50 so far.
Reporter Kim Young-a has the details.
[Reporter]
Residents who lost their homes spend the night outdoors.
Hospitals, with parts of their structures collapsed, have set up tents in their yards to treat an influx of patients.
The 7.7-magnitude strong earthquake struck off the coast of the Lesser Sunda Islands in eastern Indonesia at around 5:58 a.m. yesterday (local time, August 15).
The violent shaking jolted Flores Island, home to 2 million people, as well as neighboring islands.
[Earthquake-Affected Resident : The shaking was so severe that there was no time to get up. When I came to, people were rescuing me.]
Immediately after the earthquake, tsunami waves up to 1.6 meters high slammed into various coastal areas.
More than 340 aftershocks, reaching up to a magnitude of 6.2, have continued through today.
The Indonesian government stated that the earthquake has killed 51 people and injured over 110 on Flores Island alone.
Some 1,300 houses were damaged, forcing more than 5,000 residents to evacuate, while about 100 public facilities, including schools and hospitals, collapsed.
Authorities said that despite overnight search operations, the death toll is expected to rise as many people remain trapped under the rubble.
With landslides cutting off roads crossing the island, some remote mountain villages remain inaccessible even to rescue teams.
[Earthquake-Affected Resident : (Haven't the rescue teams arrived yet?) They haven't. We evacuated on our own.]
Indonesia lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," making it prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Yesterday, just 12 hours after the Flores Island earthquake, another magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck near North Sumatra Province.
In 2004, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the northern coast of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 170,000 people.
(Video Editing: Kim Byung-jik)
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