‘People were panicking, running’: Videos show destruction after Indonesia’s 7.7 earthquake; 20 killed
In this photo released by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS), rescuers inspect a damaged building following an earthquake in Maumere. (Photo: AP)At least 20 people were killed on Saturday after a 7.7 earthquake off Indonesia’s Flores Island flattened structures and triggered a landslide, officials said. Now, videos that show the moment buildings came crashing down in eastern Indonesia are emerging.
Clips shared on social media show the ground shaking violently as walls crumble and people run screaming into the streets. The quake hit at a depth of 10 kilometres, with its centre located north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province, according to the US Geological Survey. It also set off a brief tsunami warning, which was lifted a few hours later.
INDONESIA ROCKED by 7.7 MEGA QUAKE as BUILDING COLLAPSES
POWERFUL AFTERSHOCKS RATTLE REGION
TSUNAMI WARNING ISSUED https://t.co/77KNtlToHG pic.twitter.com/FK6pbAkAKo
— RT (@RT_com) August 14, 2026
One of the footage captures buildings collapsing into rubble as panicked residents fled onto open streets. A resident of Nagekeo said he was in a market when the ground began to shake, and that his family, who were outside the house at the time, remained safe.
Pacific tsunami alert panicked mass evacuations as vast 7.7 quake downs infrastructure pic.twitter.com/5tZctEVI64
— RT (@RT_com) August 15, 2026
A hospital worker said patients ran out of the building as the shaking intensified, and that he saw cracks appear in the walls around him. A resident of Sikka, a nearby regency, said several buildings were damaged, including the collapse of a waiting hall at the port terminal in Maumere.
Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency warned of possible tsunami waves soon after the quake and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground. A disaster agency official, Abdul Muhari, said people should move at least two kilometres inland or head to raised ground more than 10 metres high. The warning was withdrawn a few hours later.
A powerful 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake struck off the northern coast of Indonesia’s Flores Island, triggering tsunami warnings across several coastal provinces. Indonesian meteorological agencies urged residents in impacted areas to evacuate immediately to higher ground and… pic.twitter.com/lcbLMBfpfy
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 15, 2026
In 1992, a magnitude 7 earthquake in the same area caused a tsunami that killed around 2,500 people on Flores island.
Why is Indonesia so prone to earthquakes?
Indonesia is made up of more than 17,000 islands and sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active belt stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific. This makes the country and its neighbours prone to frequent, powerful earthquakes.
The country has a long history of major quakes, including a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in 2004 that triggered a tsunami killing around 220,000 people across the region, with about 170,000 deaths in Indonesia alone. In 2018, a series of quakes on Lombok island killed more than 550 people on Lombok and the nearby island of Sumbawa.
