Indonesia’s earthquake killed at least 268 people, many of them schoolchildren

The death toll from the earthquake, which measured 5.6 on the Richter scale, is expected to rise

An earthquake in Indonesia’s West Java has killed at least 268 people, including many children, and 151 are still missing, disaster relief officials said on Tuesday, as rescuers search through the rubble of destroyed buildings for survivors. .

The 5.6-magnitude quake struck Indonesia’s most populous province on Monday afternoon, badly damaging the town of Cianjur, 75 km southeast of the capital, Jakarta, and burying at least one village under a landslide.

Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto told reporters more than 1,000 people were injured, 58,000 displaced and 22,000 homes damaged.

Henri Alfiande, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Pasarnas), said landslides and rough terrain hampered rescue efforts on Tuesday.

“The challenge is that the affected area is spread out… Moreover, the roads in these villages have been damaged,” Alfiande told reporters.

He said many of the victims were children who were in school at the time of the earthquake.

While strong earthquakes of magnitude 6 or 7 are relatively common in Indonesia, often offshore where fault lines run, Monday’s quake of a lower magnitude had deadly consequences because it struck the ground at a relatively shallow depth.

Many of those killed were killed when poorly constructed buildings collapsed, officials said, and the president called for reconstruction efforts to include earthquake-resistant housing.

President Joko Widodo traveled to Cianjur on Tuesday to cheer on the rescuers.

“My instructions are to give priority to evacuating the victims who are still trapped under the rubble,” he said.

The survivors had gathered overnight in the car park of Cianjur Hospital. Some of the wounded were treated in tents, while others were delivered by intravenous drip on the sidewalk while medical personnel stitched up patients under torchlight.

“Everything collapsed under me and I was crushed under this child,” Coco, 48, told Reuters.

[1/11] Rescuers carry a body bag of a victim among the rubble of collapsed buildings during a rescue operation after the earthquake that hit Cianjur, West Java Province, Indonesia, November 22, 2022, in this photo by Antara Photo. Antara Photo/Julius Satria Wijaya/via Reuters

“Two of my children survived, and I dug them up…two more I brought here, and one is still missing,” she said, weeping.

“So many bodies lying on the grounds of the hospital, the place is so crowded,” said her relative, Hasty.

In one area, some of the victims held cardboard signs asking them for food and shelter, and it appears that emergency supplies have yet to reach them.

‘swept away’

Disaster officials said they would focus their efforts on one of the worst-hit areas in Koginang, the area hit by a landslide caused by the quake.

Television news channels showed footage of people digging brown earth by hand, using shovel, sticks, crowbars and other tools.

“At least six of my relatives are still missing, three adults and three children,” Zinedin, a resident of Kojinang, told Reuters.

“If it was just an earthquake, only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide. In this residential area there were eight houses, all of which were buried and swept away.”

National Police Chief Listeo Sigit Prabowo said more than 1,000 police officers had been deployed to help with recovery.

Rescue efforts were complicated by power outages in some areas and 145 aftershocks, with officials warning of more landslides in the coming weeks.

“It’s the rainy season in West Java, and the peak is in December,” Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the weather and geophysics agency, told reporters. So we should anticipate any catastrophe that might follow like landslides.

Along the so-called Ring of Fire, a highly seismically active area where the various plates on Earth’s crust meet, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes.

In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that hit 14 countries, killing 226,000 people.

Additional reporting by Tommy Adriancia and Aging Dinar Olvina in Cianjur. Gayatri Suroyo, Ananda Teresia, Francisca Nangwi and Bernadette Christina Monti in Jakarta; Written by Kate Lamb. Editing by Ed Davies, Stephen Coates and Nick McPhee

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Sources 1/ https://Google.com/ 2/ https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesian-rescue-workers-race-find-victims-trapped-by-deadly-quake-2022-11-22/ The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article

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