PORT VILA – A powerful earthquake hit the Pacific nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, smashing buildings in the capital Port Vila, including one used by foreign embassies, and leaving at least 14 people reported dead. 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 pm local time (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. Katie Greenwood, head of the Red Cross in the Pacific, wrote on X that the Vanuatu’s Government had reported 14 confirmed fatalities and 200 injured people being treated at the capital’s main hospital.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had earlier cited unconfirmed reports of at least six dead and estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst impacts of the quake. 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,” President 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”.

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. (Jamaicaobserver)

Photo: This screen grab taken from handout video footage posted on the Facebook account of Michael Thompson. (AFP)