- The death toll from a magnitude 5.6 earthquake is expected to rise
- Dozens remain trapped in the rubble: civil servants
- president
CIANJUR, Indonesia, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Children killed when their schools collapsed were responsible for many of the 162 deaths in an earthquake that devastated a town on Indonesia’s main island of Java , an official said Tuesday, as rescuers raced to reach the trapped people. in ruins
Hundreds of people were injured in Monday’s earthquake and officials warned that the death toll could rise.
The shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the mountains of Indonesia’s most populous West Java province, causing significant damage to the city of Cianjur and burying at least one village under a landslide.
Landslides and rough terrain were hampering rescue efforts, said Henri Alfiandi, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
“The challenge is that the affected area is widespread… In addition, the roads in these towns are damaged,” Alfiandi told a press conference, adding that more than 13,000 people had been evacuated.
“Most of the victims are children, because at 1 p.m. they were still at school,” he said, referring to the time the earthquake struck.
Many of the fatalities were the result of people trapped under collapsed buildings, officials said.
President Joko Widodo flew to Cianjur on Tuesday to cheer on the rescuers.
“My instruction is to prioritize the evacuation of victims who are still trapped under the rubble,” said the president, known as Jokowi.
He offered his condolences to the victims and promised the support of the emergency government. Reconstruction should include earthquake-prone housing to protect against future disasters, he said.
The survivors gathered overnight in the parking lot of a hospital in Cianjur. Some of the wounded were treated in tents, others were connected to intravenous drips on the sidewalk as medical workers stitched up patients by torchlight.
“Everything collapsed under me and I was crushed under this boy,” Cucu, a 48-year-old resident, told Reuters.
“Two of my children survived, I dug them up… Two others I brought here, and one is still missing,” she said through tears.
[1/10] Indonesian rescuers evacuate people from the site of a landslide caused by the earthquake in Cugenang, Cianjur, West Java province, Indonesia, November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana
Footage from Kompas TV showed people holding cardboard signs asking for food and shelter, with emergency supplies apparently yet to arrive.
Hundreds of police officers were deployed to help with the rescue effort, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told state news agency Antara.
“The main task order today for personnel is to focus on casualty evacuation,” he said.
‘SWEPPED’
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said at least 162 people were killed, many of them children, while the National Disaster Management Agency’s (BNPB) tally stood at 103, with 31 missing.
Authorities were operating “under the assumption that the number of injured and dead will rise,” the governor said, with at least one village buried by landslides triggered by the quake.
Cianjur’s police chief told Metro TV that 20 people had been evacuated from Cugenang district, most of whom had died, and residents reported relatives missing.
The area was affected by a landslide caused by the earthquake that had blocked access to the area.
“At least six of my relatives are still missing, three adults and three children,” said Zainuddin, a resident of Cugenang.
“If it was just an earthquake, only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide. There were eight houses in this residential area, all of them buried and swept away.”
Rescue efforts were complicated by power outages in some areas and more than 100 aftershocks.
Straddling the so-called “Ring of Fire,” a highly seismically active area where different plates of the Earth’s crust meet, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes.
In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake on the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that affected 14 countries and killed 226,000 people.
Report by Tommy Adriansyah and Ajeng Dinar Ulfina in Cianjur; and Gayatri Suroyo, Ananda Teresia, Fransiska Nangoy and Bernadette Christina Munthe in Jakarta; Written by Kate Lamb; Editing by Ed Davies and Stephen Coates
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