<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook Papua New Guinea Sunday, damaging buildings, triggering landslides and killing at least five people, with several others severely injured.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Residents in northern towns near the epicentre reported intense shaking mid-morning that cracked roads and rattled the cladding off buildings.</div><div><br></div><div>Local member of parliament Kessy Sawang said at least two people had died in remote mountain villages, with four others airlifted to hospital in critical condition.</div><div><br></div><div>"There has been widespread damage," she told AFP, adding that a landslide had buried homes and "split" one village where people had "lost their houses".</div><div><br></div><div>In nearby Wau, Koranga Alluvial Mining said three miners had been buried alive.</div><div><br></div><div>There are limited communications in the area, few government resources and very few paved roads, making assessment and rescue efforts difficult.</div><div><br></div><div>Small aviation companies and missionary groups were involved in airlifting some of the injured across the rugged jungle landscape.</div><div><br></div><div>"It's very difficult, the terrain, the weather. It's challenging," said Nellie Pumai of Manolos Aviation, which had transported one person out and was trying to return.</div><div><br></div><div>In the eastern highland town of Goroka, residents captured images of window awnings falling off the cracked walls of a local university.</div><div><br></div><div>It was "very strong", said Hivi Apokore, a worker at the Jais Aben Resort near the coastal town of Madang.</div><div><br></div><div>"Everything was like sitting on a sea -- just floating."</div><div><br></div><div>The quake was felt as far as the capital Port Moresby about 300 miles (480 kilometres) away.</div><div><br></div><div>The US Geological Survey initially issued a tsunami warning for nearby coastal areas, but subsequently said the threat had passed.</div><div><br></div><div>But fearful locals near the sea nevertheless fled for higher ground -- reporting that the water level had suddenly dropped.</div><div><br></div><div>- 'Massive' -</div><div>The nation's leader, James Marape, said the quake was "massive" and told people to be cautious, but said he expected the damage to be less than that from a 2018 quake and series of aftershocks, which killed an estimated 150 people.</div><div><br></div><div>However, the scale of the damage and number of casualties from Sunday's quake was still unclear.</div><div><br></div><div>"National and provincial disaster agencies, as well as leaders, have been asked to assess the damage and injuries to people and attend to these as soon as possible," Marape said.</div><div><br></div><div>State-backed communications firm DataCo said it was experiencing "multiple service disruptions" to the operation of a domestic undersea communications cable as well as the PIPE Pacific Cable 1 that runs from Sydney to Guam.</div><div><br></div><div>It was not yet clear if there was any damage to regional airports.</div><div><br></div><div>The quake struck at a depth of 61 kilometres (38 miles), about 67 kilometres from the town of Kainantu, according to the US Geological Survey.</div><div><br></div><div>Papua New Guinea sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", causing it to experience frequent earthquakes.</div><div><br></div><div>Earlier Sunday, the US Geological Survey also reported two strong quakes in the remote Mentawai Islands off the western coast of Sumatra in neighbouring Indonesia. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>