RAAF flights have brought more Australians home and delivered humanitarian aid to quake-struck Vanuatu. (Supplied: DFAT)
In short:
More Australians have been flown home on board Royal Australian Air Force flights from Vanuatu overnight.
The flights also delivered humanitarian supplies to Vanuatu to meet the needs of 500 households.
What's next?
Rescue teams are continuing the search for survivors among collapsed buildings.
Australian humanitarian supplies have arrived in the quake-hit Pacific nation of Vanuatu, as RAAF flights take more stranded Australians home.
Overnight, 141 more Australian citizens were assisted back to Australia on Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flights.
A total of 424 Australians have now been brought to Brisbane.
The RAAF flights also delivered humanitarian supplies to Vanuatu to meet the needs of 500 households.
Humanitarian aid to Vanuatu included hygiene kits and tools for construction. (Supplied: DFAT)
This included personal hygiene kits to reduce the risk of illness, tools and hardware to support construction and repair of basic shelter and tarpaulins for covering damaged structures.
Two further RAAF humanitarian assistance flights to Port Vila are scheduled for Saturday.
Australian emergency authorities have coordinated the repatriation of 141 more Australian citizens on Royal Australian Air Force flights from Vanuatu. (Supplied: DFAT)
Australian rescue teams including doctors, paramedics, engineers and communication technicians have also arrived in Vanuatu since Wednesday to conduct damage assessments in Port Vila.
The magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck off the main island on Tuesday, toppling concrete buildings in Port Vila and setting off landslides.
The Vanuatu government, citing hospital figures, said the quake killed at least 12 people and over 210 injured were being treated in hospitals, with the number expected to increase.
At least 424 Australians have now returned to Brisbane from Vanuatu on RAAF aircraft. (Supplied: DFAT)
Toll figures issued by the authorities have sometimes been contradictory as officials grapple with the disaster.
About 80,000 people have been directly affected by the earthquake in the archipelago of 320,000, which sits in the Pacific's quake-prone Ring of Fire, the UN said.
Rescuers extend search for quake survivors
In Port Vila, rescuers have focused on two disaster areas: a four-storey building housing a supermarket, hotel and garage in the north in which the ground floor was flattened, and a two-floor shopping block in the city centre that crumbled into a flat pile of concrete.
There are "several major collapse sites where buildings are fully pancaked", Australia's 69-strong rescue team leader Douglas May said in a video update provided by Canberra on Friday.
An Australian coordination centre has been set up to organise repatriation flights and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Vanuatu. (Supplied: DFAT)
"Outside of that, there's a lot of smaller collapses around the place," Mr May said.
"We're now starting to spread out to see whether there's further people trapped and further damage. And we've found numerous places of collapse east and west out of the city."
The shopping block is where "most of the lives have been lost", Vanuatu's Emergency Services Association acting manager Jeff Mabbett said.
His rescue team was on-site minutes after the quake hit, rescuing those they could.
Members of Australia's Federal Police and other rescue workers stand by a collapsed building in Port Vila. (AP: Australian Federal Police)
Four days on, the unit was still digging through landslides and the rubble of buildings.
The rescue effort was being hampered by "limited access to heavy machinery, very small spaces, poor lighting and multiple large aftershocks", Mr Mabbett said.
ABC/Wires
