Two people were killed after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Indonesia’s Flores region on Saturday, following the lifting of a tsunami warning, according to the country’s meteorology, climatology, and geophysics agency (BMKG), which recorded tsunami waves under one meter in several areas.
The agency initially classified the earthquake as magnitude 7.5, then downgraded it to 6.9, before reclassifying it as 7.5 and then upgrading it to 7.7.
BMKG issued the tsunami warning earlier on Saturday and also warned of possible aftershocks in the region.
#Pemutakhiran,Tsunami akibat Gmp Mag:7.7SR, telah terdeteksi di SIKKA(05:03WIB)0.19m, LABUAN BAJO(05:26WIB)0.36m, DOMPU(05:29WIB)0.17m#BMKG pic.twitter.com/WAUVHyvgdx
— BMKG (@infoBMKG) August 14, 2026
According to the the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), the earthquake occured at a depth of 35 km at 4:58 a.m. local time (12:58 a.m. Israel time), with a tsunami evaluation conducted before the warning was issued.
Many rushed from their homes, but there were no initial reports of damage from the quake, which was felt strongly for around one minute in regions such as Nagekeo and Bima, said Dodi Yuleova, the spokesperson for the Indonesia‘s national disaster mitigation agency.
A video on Facebook, verified by Reuters as being from a port in Maumere, the main town in Sikka Regency on Flores Island in eastern Indonesia, showed parts of a building collapsing into dust and rubble as people screamed and ran in the street.
A hospital in the district of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara Province was moving patients outside, Kompas TV footage showed.
Additional magnitude 5.5 earthquake in Flores region
An additional earthquake was detected at a depth of 10 km in the same region soon after, at 5:13 a.m. local time (1:13 a.m. Israel time), with the EMSC noting its classification as magnitude 5.5 following an earlier classification of 6.3.
Australia‘s tsunami warning center said the undersea earthquake will have “no tsunami threat to the Australian mainland, islands or territories.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
