Over 160 people are killed in an earthquake in Indonesia, and the search for survivors continues
On Monday, a potent earthquake killed at least 162 individuals and left hundreds more injured on Indonesia’s main island, West Java province, with rescuers looking for survivors trapped beneath the rubble amid a series of aftershocks. Residents were terrified and fled into the street, some covered in blood and debris.
The death toll is still at 62, according to Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), and rescuers are looking for 25 people who are believed to be trapped under rubble. A BNPB spokesperson said the search would continue through the night and told reporters that the death toll could rise because so many buildings have collapsed.
According to the BNPB, over 2,200 homes were damaged and over 5,300 people were displaced. Ridwan put the figure at 13,000, saying they would be spread out across Cianjur in various evacuation centres. Authorities reported that electricity was out, disrupting communications, and that landslides were impeding evacuations in some areas.
The earthquake on Java, the country’s main island, destructed large numbers of buildings, and authorities worried that many people were still hidden beneath the rubble.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil announced on Instagram that 162 people had died and 326 had been injured. According to Kamil, more than 13,000 people were evacuated from severely damaged homes and many of those killed were public-school students who had finished their classes for the day and were attending after-school Islamic classes when they collapsed.
In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck West Sumatra province, killing at least 25 people and injuring over 460 more. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake in West Sulawesi province in January 2021 killed over 100 people and injured nearly 6,500.
A potent Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people in a dozen countries in 2004, with Indonesia bearing the lion’s share of the blame. The epicentre of the 5.6 magnitude earthquake was near Cianjur in mountainous West Java, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Jakarta.
Residents fled damaged homes, some crying and holding their children, after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake shook the region in West Java province in the late afternoon, at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles). It also caused panic in the surrounding Jakarta area, where high-rise buildings swayed and some people were evacuated.
Because of its location on the Pacific Basin’s “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines, the country of over 270 million inhabitants is commonly struck by seismic events, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Hospitals were overcrowded, and the death toll was expected to rise further. Because of the area’s remote, rural population, no estimates were immediately available, but many structures collapsed, and residents and emergency workers braced for bad news.
Cianjur has a population of around 175,000 people and is part of a mountainous district with a population of over 2.5 million people. Cianjur’s people are known for their piety, and they live mostly in one- and two-story towns, as well as smaller homes in the surrounding countryside. The injured were treated on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on terraces, and in parking lots in the Cianjur region, about three hours drive from Java’s capital.
Children among the injured were given oxygen masks and IV lines. Some people were resuscitated. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Cianjur regional hospital, waiting for treatment. Several landslides shut down roads in the Cianjur district. A hospital was among the dozens of buildings damaged, according to the agency. There were reports of power outages