At least 40 people have died and thousands have fled after a powerful earthquake hit Indonesia early on Saturday, causing buildings and homes to collapse. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast around 5.58am local time, around 11pm in the UK. It was followed by two aftershocks, one with a magnitude of 6.1. Indonesia's Flores Island was hit by the quake with a depth of 10km (six miles), with the epicentre 68km (42 miles) from Ende, on the southern coast of the island, in East Nusa Tenggara province.At least 40 people have died and 50 people injured, according to Fathur Rahman, head of the local rescue agency. Around 2,000 have fled.Hospitals in Flores Island's port town of Maumere, around 2,500km (1,553 miles) east of Jakarta, were evacuated as rescuers scrambled to find survivors under collapsed buildings. While makeshift tents have been set up to treat patients outside of collapsed medical facilities in Labuan Bajo, in Indonesia's southernmost province East Nusa Tenggara.A second strong quake was recorded thousands of kilometres away on Sumatra island in the west of the archipelago 12 hours later, but there were no initial reports of damage or casualties. Indonesian military and rescue personnel search through debris at a damaged building following a magnitude 7.7 earthquake Rescuers inspect a heavily-damaged building at the Port of L. Say, a maritime facility in Maumere on the Flores Island Patients received treatment inside a makeshift tent outside a hospital on SaturdayThe epicentre of the tremor was 7km (4.35 miles) northwest of the city of Pemantangsiantar, in the north of the island, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).However, it was measured at a depth of 180km (112 miles). There is no risk of a tsunami, EMSC added.Parts of the Indonesian National Armed Forces and national police have since been called in for the emergency response to the earthquake off the coast of Flores island.Around 2,000 residents in Nagekeo were evacuated, and damage was reported to a number of houses, warehouses and government facilities, BNPB said. Authorities also reported traffic congestion and power outages affecting parts of the regency, it said. Yohanes Babo, 55, described being at a market in Nagekeo when he started to feel the earth shake. 'The shaking was strong. Thankfully, we were already outside the house,' he said.'People were panicking, running here and there. We're evacuating for the time being... and trying to get to the hills,' he said, adding: 'My family is safe. No one was harmed.' Hospital staff worked under a makeshift tent in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia People were evacuated from the collapsed Jayakarta hotel in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia A bench sits among rubble on Saturday at a heavily-damaged building at the Port of L. SayLocals in Nagekeo, the region closest to the epicentre of the quake, were forced to race for higher ground as the sea retreated earlier on Saturday – prompting concerns about a tsunami. Tsunami waves of less than 1 metre (3 feet) were recorded in several areas of the Southeast Asian nation after the early morning tremor. The tsunami warning was lifted about three hours after the quake.Meanwhile, Lukas Lotar, a resident of Maumere, described how the earth 'suddenly started to shake' which caused him to 'panic'. 'Patients also fled the hospital, the jolt was big. I saw some walls were cracked,' the customer service official said. A hospital near Ende was filmed moving its patients outside by local media, though it is unclear whether this was in the same place Mr Lotar described. The governor of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Emanuel Melkiades Laka Lena, told media at least five people died from collapsing rubble as they slept.The BNPB, which put the quake's toll at one dead and four injured, said it was still gathering data.Parts of a building collapsed into dust and rubble as people screamed and ran in the street, a video on Facebook, at a port in Maumere, showed.'The quake was massive, the shock was so strong, we were resting at home with family,' said Nona, a 51-year-old resident of Talibura, a village in East Nusa Tenggara. 'There were 13 of us inside the house and we all ran to save ourselves.'Strong shaking was felt across East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara and parts of South Sulawesi, and residents in several areas reported shaking lasting about one minute, BNPB said in a statement.'Most of the people felt the shock and scattered out of their homes,' it said.