One killed in massive earthquake in Papua New Guinea

One person was killed after a massive earthquake hit Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Sunday morning, according to media reports.

The official Chinese news agency Xinhua citing sources reported that 7.6 magnitude of earthquake caused big damage to villages at the Finisterre Range by landslides, with houses buried, and one person confirmed dead.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale jolted the Kainantu town in the eastern New Guinea region of the country at 23:46:55 GMT on Saturday, the US Geological Survey said.

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.

According to the news agency, PNG Prime Minister James Marape said he is "very concerned" about the impact of this massive earthquake, and appealed people to be calm and take extra care.

He said national and provincial disaster agencies, as well as leaders, had been asked to assess the scale of damage and injuries to people.

The PNG Defense Force and police had been put on alert to respond to emergencies if needed, Xinhua reported.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor