Indonesia earthquake leaves 162 dead and hundreds injured

The “Pacific Ring of Fire,” where various plates of the Earth’s crust collide and produce a great number of earthquakes, crosses Indonesia.

Indonesia’s Cianjur: On Monday, a strong earthquake struck Indonesia’s West Java province, killing more than 160 people. Rescuers are currently looking for survivors who may be buried beneath the rubble.
The 5.6-magnitude earthquake’s epicentre was close to the town of Cianjur in West Java’s mountainous region, roughly 75 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of the nation’s capital, Jakarta. There are about 2.5 million people living in the area.

Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, posted on Instagram that 162 people had died and 326 had been hurt.

The 62 fatalities were still listed by Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), which also said rescuers were still looking for 25 people who were thought to be trapped beneath the rubble and that the search would go on all night.

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According to Ridwan, the death toll could increase because so many structures have collapsed.

“There are locals trapped in remote locations, therefore we are assuming that the number of injuries and fatalities will increase over time.”

The so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” where various plates of the Earth’s crust collide and produce a great deal of earthquakes and volcanoes, crosses Indonesia.

More than 5,300 individuals had to be relocated, according to the BNPB, and more than 2,200 homes had been destroyed. Ridwan estimated that figure at 13,000 and stated that they will be dispersed among numerous evacuation centres located across Cianjur.

According to authorities, communications were hampered by a power outage, and some locations were blocked from escape due to landslides.

In a hospital parking lot, hundreds of people were receiving care, some of them under an emergency tent. In some parts of Cianjur, people were huddled on mats in open fields or in tents while the buildings around them were in ruins.

Late into the night, ambulances continued to arrive at the hospital, bringing more patients there.

The quake, which occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km, is still being investigated by officials to establish the full extent of its devastation, according to the meteorological and geophysics department (BMKG).

Vani, who was receiving treatment in Cianjur’s major hospital, told MetroTV that an aftershock caused the walls of her home to collapse.

“Walls and wardrobe suddenly collapsed. Everything was flattened, and I’m not even sure where my parents are “She spoke.

Ridwan reported 88 aftershocks, and weather service BMKG issued a warning about more landslides in the event of intense rain.

48-year-old Cucu was looking for one of her seven kids.

“While I was upstairs doing laundry, the kids were downstairs. Everything gives way under me… My child who is still missing “She spoke.

Some employees in Jakarta’s core business district left their offices, while others described hearing shaking and seeing furniture move, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters.

In 2004, a tsunami that slammed 14 nations and killed 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline—more than half of them in Indonesia—was caused by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra.