A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hits Papua New Guinea, killing 5 people and destroying 1,000 houses

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea (representative)

Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea:

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck flood-hit northern Papua New Guinea, killing at least five people and destroying an estimated 1,000 homes, officials said on Monday, as relief workers poured into the area.

“About 1,000 homes have been destroyed so far,” East Sepik governor Allan Bird said, adding that emergency workers were “still assessing the impact” of the earthquake on the province. impact in some areas.”

Dozens of villages along the country’s Sepik River were already at risk of severe flooding when the earthquake struck early Sunday morning.

Provincial police commander Christopher Tamari told AFP that authorities had recorded five deaths but the death toll was “probably higher”.

Photos taken after the quake showed damaged wooden houses collapsing into knee-deep floodwaters surrounding them.

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on top of the seismic “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense tectonic activity that runs through Southeast Asia and the Pacific basin.

Although they rarely cause widespread damage in sparsely populated jungle uplands, they can trigger devastating landslides.

Many of the island nation’s nine million citizens live outside major towns, where rugged terrain and a lack of closed roads could severely hamper search and rescue efforts.

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