At least five people were killed and several households were damaged after a massive earthquake hit Papua New Guinea (PNG) early on Sunday morning, according to media reports.The 7.6 magnitude earthquake damaged buildings, triggered landslides and killed five people Al Jazeera reported.
According to the media report, a local member of parliament, Kessy Sawang said at least two people were killed in remote mountain villages, with four others airlifted to hospital in critical condition. In nearby Wau, Koranga Alluvial Mining said three miners were buried alive.
As per the United States Geological Survey, the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the Kainantu town in the eastern New Guinea region of the country at 23:46:55 GMT on Sunday.
The tremor was recorded 67 km East of Kainantu, Papua New Guinea. The epicentre of the quake was located at a depth of 61.4 km. The latitude of the quake was 6.224°S while the Longitude was 146.471°E.
The United Nations (UN) report said people had been injured by falling structures or debris, and there was damage to some health centres, homes, rural roads and highways.
Power infrastructure was damaged in affected areas, causing an outage across the Eastern Highlands.
