Australian tsunami death toll rises to 12 as quake hits nation's east coast
Updated
The death toll from a deadly quake across the Indian Ocean in the hours after it struck has risen to 12, as thousands more were forced to flee their homes and feared for their lives.
Trouble started at 7:30pm (CEST) in Papua New Guinea when the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PWS) received "positive signals" from the quake.
"We could not say at that point whether this was a real or an unplanned earthquake," Dr Stephen Kounios, a PWS scientist, said.
"So we decided to keep waiting until we could confirm, without any reason or evidence, whether there was a quake."
He added: "That's when we decided we should assess the situation."
Dr Kounios said one person, a woman, and her four-year-old son, survived the quakes, although his condition deteriorated in the days and weeks after.
"The girl is in her 40s and seems to have suffered burns and has lost some bone; she is in a wheelchair," Dr Kounios told ABC's Four Corners.
"We do know she is in a good physical condition and we have not seen any signs of injuries to her neck, hand and foot... so we are just waiting for further evidence."
Rescue mission expanded after death toll from disaster rise
The disaster has also affected rescue missions to rescue injured people, with hundreds of officials now on the move to the scene from far-flung countries.
The latest quake struck the town of Lavergne, a town of 10,000 people, about 35 kilometres from the Pacific coast.
Residents woke up to a massive quake about 6:45am in the area and had to be evacuated before the second wave came.
About 30,000 residents are affected by the damage.
Rescuers from the US, Fiji and other countries arrived in the town.
Fijians are already providing housing to those affected from the island of Tuvalu, which suffered its first ever earthquake this year.
A tsunami warning remains in effect for the entire island, with two warnings issued since the 8.8 magnitude quake hit.
Topics: earthquake, community-and-society, natural-resource-management, disasters, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, australia
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Ngày 19 tháng 7 năm 2020
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