- The 5.6-magnitude earthquake claimed the lives of 162 people.
- Children made up a substantial proportion of those killed by collapsed structures.
- Officials said dozens of people are still trapped in the rubble.
CIANJUR: A day after an earthquake struck a West Java town, killing at least 162 people and injuring hundreds, Indonesian rescue workers rushed to reach residents still buried in the rubble, fearing the death toll might rise.
The epicentre of the shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake happened near Cianjur in a mountainous section of Indonesia’s most populous province. Buildings collapsed as a result of the Monday afternoon tremor, sending scared residents fleeing into the streets.
Many of the fatalities, according to Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics department, were caused by falling structures.
Overnight, injured people poured into the Cianjur hospital parking lot, where some were treated in makeshift tents and others were hooked up to intravenous drips on the ground while doctors and nurses stitched them up by the light of torches.
Cucu, a 48-year-old resident, told Reuters from the bustling hospital parking lot that everything crashed beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child.
I discovered two of my children who had survived. I brought two more with me, but one of them is still missing While crying, she added.
On Tuesday morning, Dedi Prasetyo, a national police spokesperson, told the official news agency Antara that hundreds of police officers had been dispatched to assist with rescue efforts.
He stated that the primary goal for the personnel today is to focus on evacuating victims.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil claimed that the Monday earthquake killed at least 162 people, many of them were children, and injured over 300 more. He also warned that some residents might still be trapped in distant places.
Authorities, he said, were responding on the presumption that the number of injured and fatalities will rise over time.
The issue is that the affected area is quite large. Furthermore, the roads in these locations are in poor condition Henri Alfiandi of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) stated at a news conference.
He claims that the majority of the casualties are youngsters because they were still in school at 1pm when the earthquake struck.
More than 13,000 people had been evacuated, with 162 individuals killed, according to Basarnas.
The national disaster agency (BNPB) recorded 62 fatalities and stated that the further 100 victims had not yet been confirmed.
According to the Cianjur police commander, 20 people have already been evacuated from Cugenang, the most of whom have died, while residents continue to report missing family members.
A landslide caused by the earthquake made access to the region impossible.
At least six of my relatives—three adults and three children—are still missing, said Zainuddin, a Cugenang resident.
Houses would collapse even if there was only an earthquake, but the landslide makes matters worse. This community comprised eight dwellings, all of which had been inundated and washed away.
The rescue efforts were hampered by 117 aftershocks and temporary power disruptions.
According to the BNPB, the earthquake, which occurred at a depth of only 10 km (6.2 miles) and was felt 75 kilometers away in Jakarta, damaged at least 2,200 dwellings and displaced over 5,000 people.
Because it is located on the “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active region of the earth’s crust, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes.
A 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra generated a tsunami that smashed 14 nations and killed 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline in 2004, killing more than half of them in Indonesia.
