According to provincial governor Ridwan Kamil, an earthquake on Indonesia’s major island of Java has killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds more.
Cianjur, Indonesia: According to US Geological Survey data, the 5.6 magnitude quake impacted Cianjur town in West Java at a shallow depth of 10km (six miles). Hundreds of people were brought to hospitals, with many being treated on the street.
Rescuers worked late into the night to save others believed to be trapped beneath collapsed structures.
The quake’s epicenter is highly populated and prone to landslides, with many poorly constructed dwellings reduced to rubble. There are different accounts of the precise number of dead, and it is difficult to obtain a definitive figure while the search and rescue operation continues.
According to the most recent available data, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that 62 persons have died.
Over 13,000 individuals have been forced to flee their homes. According to Mr. Kamil and the BNPB, around 2,200 properties have been destroyed.
Mr. Kamil, the governor of West Java, had earlier stated that around 700 people had been hurt. He predicted that the number of injuries and fatalities would rise because “a lot of people” were stuck at the scene.
According to Herman Suherman, the chief of administration in Cianjur town, most casualties were bone fractures caused by persons trapped by rubble in houses. “The ambulances keep coming from the villages to the hospital,” he was reported as saying earlier in the day by the AFP news agency. “Many families remain in villages that have not been evacuated.”
Many of the injured were treated outside in a hospital parking lot after the hospital lost power for several hours following the quake, according to West Java’s governor.
The tremor was also felt around 100 kilometers distant in Jakarta, where inhabitants in high-rise buildings were evacuated.
During the tremor, which began at 13:21 Western Indonesian time (WIT) on Monday, office workers raced out of buildings in the civic and business districts, according to the agency.
“I was working when the floor under me began to shake. I could feel the tremor. I did nothing to grasp what it was, but it grew stronger and persisted for a while, “Mayadita Waluyo, a lawyer, told AFP.
“We are used to this [earthquakes] in Jakarta,” an office worker called Ahmad Ridwan told Reuters. “But people were so frightened just now, so we also panicked.”
Earthquakes are widespread in Indonesia, located in the Pacific’s “ring of fire” zone of tectonic activity.
