Thousands evacuate after Indonesia quake kills 51, cuts roads

SIKKA, Indonesia — Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday. Thirty-six people were seriously injured in the Saturday morning quake in East Nusa Tenggara province, while 77 had minor injuries, Deputy Health Minister Benjamin Paulus Octavianus told a televised meeting. The quake, followed by some 341 aftershocks, is the Southeast Asian nation's deadliest since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java. More than 3,300 people in the Sikka region self-evacuated or were in a sports arena, said the disaster mitigation agency BNPB. Some Sikka residents were stranded outside collapsed homes under a makeshift tent made out of tarp, while some people received treatment in a tent outside a hospital in the port town of Maumere. "I only brought my body," Abdul Mutas, 63, told Reuters after he and his family slept on a tarp surrounded by trees in the town of Sikka. "The tides were rising, so we ran," he said, describing their reaction to the qua