The death toll from the earthquake that struck Vanuatu on Tuesday has risen to 14, as search teams search through piles of rubble to try to locate survivors.
Another 200 people are being treated for their injuries, with powerful aftershocks from the 7.3 magnitude quake reported overnight.
The earthquake damaged buildings including the embassies of the United States, France, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. It also cut electricity and mobile services.
Vanuatu Police said a seven-day state of emergency had been declared to restrict public movements while search and rescue operations were underway.
Four of the victims died in hospital in the capital Port Vila, the government said. Six came from a landslide, while four came from a collapsed building, the toll of which is expected to rise further.
Two of the victims were Chinese nationals, Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang told state media.
An estimated 116,000 people could be affected by the worst consequences of the earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Neighboring Australia will send teams to help with search and rescue efforts, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told ABC News on Wednesday. The United States and France have also promised aid.
Photos shared by Vanuatu Police on Facebook showed rescuers searching through rubble by hand and crawling under the floors of collapsed buildings.
At least 10 buildings in Port Vila suffered “major structural damage”, the government disaster management office said.
From the rubble of a three-story building, rescuers heard the voices of at least three people, Vanuatu resident Michael Thompson told AFP.
Thompson said rescuers used “everything we could get our hands on,” including jackhammers, grinders and concrete saws, to save the people.
Footage from state broadcaster VBTC showed many businesses in Port Vila closed on Wednesday, with debris strewn across sidewalks and some roads cracked.
Some people could be seen searching for essential supplies.
The earthquake struck at 12:47 a.m. local time (01:47 GMT) on Tuesday and triggered a brief tsunami warning.
Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of some 80 islands in the South Pacific, is located west of Fiji and thousands of kilometers east of northern Australia.
The country is in a seismically active zone and is exposed to frequent large earthquakes and other natural disasters.
