New Delhi: Rescue teams searched collapsed buildings and landslide debris across Indonesia’s Flores Island on Sunday after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake killed at least 47 people and injured 101 others. More than 5,000 residents remained in evacuation centres or makeshift shelters as repeated aftershocks and the risk from damaged buildings kept families from returning home.
The Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency, known as BNPB, said Manggarai regency recorded 23 deaths and neighbouring East Manggarai reported 17. Four people died in Sikka, while Manggarai Barat, Ende and Nagekeo each reported one fatality, according to an update issued early on August 16, 2026. BNPB’s latest casualty and displacement figures
Search operations continued in communities that had been inaccessible since the earthquake, with rescuers looking for people feared trapped beneath ruined buildings or buried by landslides. The mountainous terrain, damaged roads and disrupted communications complicated efforts to establish the full scale of the disaster.
The earthquake struck at 5.58am local time on August 15, with Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, or BMKG, locating its epicentre in the sea about 30 kilometres northeast of Nagekeo in East Nusa Tenggara province. BMKG measured the shallow earthquake at a depth of 15 kilometres, while the United States Geological Survey placed it about 68 kilometres north-northwest of Ende at a depth of 10 kilometres. BMKG’s earthquake assessment
The tremor was strongly felt across Flores and also shook parts of West Nusa Tenggara and southern Sulawesi, sending residents rushing into the open. Labuan Bajo, the principal gateway to Komodo National Park and one of eastern Indonesia’s major tourism centres, was among the affected towns.
BMKG said the earthquake resulted from movement along the Flores Back-Arc Thrust, a complex zone of tectonic compression running north of the island chain. The thrust mechanism and the quake’s shallow offshore location prompted the agency to issue a tsunami warning within two minutes and 16 seconds of the initial shock.
The warning was withdrawn at 7.30am after monitoring stations found no continuing dangerous rise in sea levels, although small tsunami waves reached 10 coastal locations. The highest recorded wave measured 0.94 metres at Maurole in Ende, while readings elsewhere ranged from 0.14 metres to 0.54 metres. BMKG’s tsunami warning update
By early Sunday, authorities had registered 341 aftershocks, some strong enough to be felt across the island. BMKG earlier said the largest aftershock measured magnitude 6.2 and warned that seismic activity could take two to three weeks to return to normal levels. BMKG’s aftershock assessment
Initial assessments showed that 914 homes had been severely damaged, 126 had sustained moderate damage and another 317 had been lightly damaged. At least 93 educational institutions, 36 health facilities and 38 government buildings were also affected, leaving basic public services under pressure.
Landslides blocked roads and isolated several settlements, particularly in Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo. Although the Larantuka–Maumere route had reopened, the road connecting Ende and Nagekeo remained cut, forcing emergency teams to identify alternative routes for evacuations and the delivery of supplies.
Officials said the immediate priorities were to locate missing residents, treat the injured and provide displaced families with tents, food, clean water, medicines, blankets and generators. A field hospital began operating in Reok district in Manggarai as damaged medical facilities struggled to cope with casualties.
The head of BNPB, Lieutenant General Suharyanto, ordered national and provincial command posts to be established in Labuan Bajo and Maumere to coordinate operations across the western and eastern parts of Flores. The response included helicopters, ships and fixed-wing aircraft operated by the Indonesian military, the national search-and-rescue agency and BNPB. BNPB’s emergency-response plan
The East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration was preparing to declare a 14-day emergency, while several affected regencies had already announced their own emergency periods. Manggarai declared a 90-day response phase, Ngada imposed a 30-day emergency and East Manggarai placed its disaster-alert arrangements in force until September 4.
Flores is especially vulnerable to destructive earthquakes because it lies above the Flores Back-Arc Thrust, where tectonic compression has produced a chain of active faults north of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Indonesia more broadly sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the interaction of several tectonic plates causes frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
In December 1992, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake off Flores generated a tsunami that devastated coastal communities and killed about 2,500 people. Indonesia also suffered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed about 230,000 people across several countries, and the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami, which left more than 4,400 dead.