WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila on Tuesday, killing at least six people and damaging two reservoirs and a hospital, according to local media and the United Nations.

National broadcaster VBTC showed footage of vehicles crushed under the rubble of collapsed buildings and boulders strewn across a highway. Drone footage showed landslides near a shipping terminal.

On Tuesday evening, Caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai declared a state of emergency and said a seven-day curfew would be imposed in the worst-hit areas. International help was requested.

It was a “sad and devastating time” in Port Vila, he said, expressing his condolences to the families who lost loved ones.

A Port Vila hospital official told VBTC that six people died and more than 50 were injured.

Rescue efforts to find people trapped in collapsed buildings continued in the evening, a police official told local media.

“It was the most powerful earthquake I have experienced in my 21 years of living in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands. I’ve seen many big earthquakes, never one like this,” Dan McGarry, a Vanuatu-based journalist, told Reuters.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there was significant damage and Australia was preparing to deploy relief workers, including urban search and rescue teams and emergency medical teams, on Wednesday.

Port Vila International Airport is closed, the Vanuatu High Commission in Canberra said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 116,000 people were affected by the earthquake. It said there were six unconfirmed deaths and damage to the two main water reservoirs.

The structure of the hospital in Port Vila was affected as the operating room was not functioning and triage tents were set up outside to cope with the influx of patients, a statement said.

Authorities were only able to communicate with the National Disaster Management Office on Tuesday evening when Starlink satellite services were deployed, it said.

“Devastated Families”

Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said on Facebook that he was “saddened by the news of the earthquake that has claimed lives and destroyed families in Vanuatu.”

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said on social media platform X that many people had been injured and infrastructure destroyed.

Surveillance camera footage from the moment the quake struck showed people scattering in a panic in a garage and cars swaying on the ground.

Footage posted on social media showed dented windows and collapsed concrete pillars at a building housing foreign missions in the capital, including the embassies of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in Papua New Guinea said the embassy in Port Vila suffered “significant damage”. All employees who were in the US Embassy building were able to evacuate safely, the spokesman added.

The New Zealand High Commission building, located next to the US, French and British missions, “suffered significant damage”, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

Vanuatu’s government is in transition mode ahead of a national election after the president dissolved parliament last month.

According to the US Geological Survey, the quake occurred at a depth of 6 miles.

Half a dozen aftershocks shook Vanuatu after the first quake, USGS data showed. Some were so heavy they could be felt in Port Vila, McGarry said.

The US tsunami warning system has lifted an initial tsunami warning for Vanuatu.