Greenwood said Vanuatu’s main hospital had been damaged, and the water supply had been compromised.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has confirmed there were no Australian casualties or serious injuries: “I think there are small scrapes which are being handled.”

Marles said the government was still in the process of contacting some of the locally engaged staff. He said two planes would leave on Wednesday, taking a medical assistance team and a search and rescue team to Vanuatu.

The UN humanitarian office said access to the airport and seaport was “severely limited due to road damage”. Residents were urged to stay away from coastlines for at least 24 hours and until tsunami and earthquake monitoring systems were operational again.

Trapped in buildings

Amanda Laithwaite said her husband was among rescuers searching for eight people they could hear yelling inside, but their progress was slow.

Three people were pulled alive from the rubble overnight, her husband, Michael Thompson, who runs a zip line adventure business, wrote on Facebook. In one video he shared, a dust-covered woman lay on a gurney. Army personnel and civilians worked with tools and shovels, Thompson said.

“Three people have been removed alive with one in a very serious condition ... incredible displays of bravery with people entering confined spaces to conduct rescues,” Thompson said.

The country does not have the capacity to cope with a mass casualty event, Vanuatu-based journalist Dan McGarry told The Associated Press.

“It was the most violent earthquake I’ve experienced in my 21 years living in Vanuatu and in the Pacific Islands. I’ve seen a lot of large earthquakes, never one like this,” he told Reuters.

Embassies are damaged

A building housing a number of diplomatic missions in Port Vila – including those of the United States, Britain, France and New Zealand – was significantly damaged.

The US embassy’s Facebook page said all staff were safe, but the building was closed until further notice. The office opened in July as part of a push by the US to expand its Pacific presence to counter China’s influence in the region.

French ambassador Jean-Baptiste Jeangene Vilmer described the damage to the building on X, saying it was split in two and the ground floor of the US embassy had collapsed. He wrote that all personnel were safe, but there were numerous victims elsewhere in the country. He said France, Australia and New Zealand were sending urgent help.

New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said officials have accounted for all but two of its embassy staff. Australia’s Foreign Ministry said its workers were safe.

All flights grounded

McGarry said a “massive landslide” at the international shipping terminal was likely to impede recovery efforts. The airport’s runway is also damaged, he said.

Some airlines in Australia and the Pacific said they had cancelled or paused flights scheduled for Wednesday and were awaiting news of the airport’s status.

NZ Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said a military surveillance plane would fly over on Wednesday to assess damage, with further support to follow when the airport opened.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said there was significant damage and Australia was preparing to deploy assistance.

A Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) will depart Wednesday morning, which includes a search and rescue team as well as an Australian Medical Assistance Team.

In a statement, Matt Keogh, acting minister for international development and the Pacific, said: “Australia and Vanuatu share a deep and enduring partnership. We are family, and we will always be there in times of need.”

Vanuatu’s position on a subduction zone – where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate moves beneath the Pacific Plate – means earthquakes of greater than magnitude six are not uncommon, and the country’s buildings are intended to withstand quake damage.

On Tuesday evening, Vanuatu’s caretaker Prime Minister Charlot Salwai declared a state of emergency and said a curfew would be imposed for seven days in the worst-affected areas.

The disaster has also occurred at a moment of political turmoil in the Melanesian country.

Salwai dissolved parliament last month, setting the stage for a snap election on January 14, only for opposition MPs to mount a constitutional challenge to the move.

While a first case was dismissed by the Supreme Court last week, former prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau announced they were appealing against that judgment – an appeal due to be heard before Christmas.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 116,000 people, nearly half of the country’s population, had been affected by the earthquake. It said there was damage to the two main water reservoirs.

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

Authorities were unable to communicate with the National Disaster Management Office until Tuesday evening when Starlink satellite services were provided, it said.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 30 kilometres west of the coast of Port Vila at a depth of 10 kilometres. The depth has since been revised to 57.1 kilometres.

Vanuatu, a group of 80 islands that are home to some 330,000 people, lies on the “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000-kilometre seismically active arc around the rim of the Pacific tectonic plate.

The US Tsunami Warning System cancelled an initial tsunami warning for the area.

AP, Reuters, AAP