Vanuatu quake: 'You could hear people absolutely screaming their heads off'

The embassy building is one of many in Vanuatu that has suffered heavy damage. Photo: Dan McGarry

Vanuatu locals have described hearing screams from collapsing buildings as the strong earthquake struck off the coast of Port Vila.

The 7.3 magnitude quake - which struck at a depth of 57 kilometres - has caused at least one death, according to reports.

Twenty-year-old Emma Thompson was at a restaurant with a friend in the second storey of a building in Port Vila when the quake hit.

"As soon as we started to take a few steps, the whole floor of the restaurant building dropped about 40 centimetres, and all the steel from the building was sticking out. I was on the floor with a statue all over my leg."

"The building right next to us, it was a two three story building completely collapsed all the way to the ground with numerous people stuck inside. And you could just hear the screams and dust through the air and people absolutely screaming their heads off. And they're still in there, at the moment, unfortunately."

She made it out with a injury to her leg - but she said rescuers efforts to get into collapsed buildings were hampered without heavy machinery to lift the rubble.

"We don't actually currently have access to any heavy machinery that can make out it into town, because the bridges are down, all the workshops are out of town, we can't contact anyone, all cell phone towers are down, no internet is working. The only thing that is working is Starlink, which very few people have because it just got introduced to the country."

She said the community was shaken by the quake and anxious to contact loved ones.

"Everyone is just trying to bunker down, and make sure that they're okay and then over the next few days, try and get a hold of everyone around them and make sure the community is still standing by the end of this, which we hope it is."

Vanuatu Business Resilience Council chairperson Glen Craig was in the Grand Hotel having lunch when the earthquake struck.

"We sort of got maybe two seconds and it was just on us. I looked at my wife and we ran for the outside, and we just got to the door when the big one came and threw us down some stairs."

He said they were in disbelief that the building had not actually collapsed.

"We've probably got up to 10 buildings collapsed, I don't have the exact numbers, but there's some pretty significant ones. They're generally concentrated in the CBD or out to the airport.

"We know we've got fatalities, it'll be a mass casualty event, but we're unsure of the number because we can't access those buildings."

Craig said there was much less damage out in the villages and resort areas, and it was concentrated in the tallest buildings.

"You've just got a massive mess inside of the supermarkets and things, with shelves down and air conditioning units falling off the ceilings and things like that."

He said people were faring "pretty awful" without communications, with the earthquake knocking out the power backups, but there were hopes power will be restored by Wednesday night.

Craig said the power went out about 45 minutes after the earthquake as a safety measure, because fuel storage tanks in the diesel generation system had fallen over and other cables needed repairing.

Restoring access to the main wharf to be able to bring in heavy machinery would also be a priority.

"Our main wharf had a huge slip that came across it, so access to the wharf is cut off at the moment. I know there are a lot of plans at the moment to try and clear that slip, because that's where is were gonna bring in any type of naval support, we need that slip cleared."

He said people are also stranded on the other side of the slip, and vehicles that were crushed under the debris.

"We've got confirmed reports of fatalities."

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