One day after an earthquake slammed Java, the main island of Indonesia, killing at least 162 people, many of them children, and wounding hundreds more, Indonesian rescue personnel were rushing to reach individuals still buried under wreckage.
The 6.2-mile (10-kilometer) deep earthquake that slammed West Java province on Monday afternoon and was centred in the Cianjur district caused landslides and damaged hundreds of homes, among other structures.
West Java’s governor, Ridwan Kamil, reported 162 fatalities.
He claimed that according to the authorities, “the number of injured and [killed] would increase over time.”
According to preliminary statistics made public by the authorities and quoted by Save the Children, 51 educational facilities—including 30 elementary schools, 12 junior high schools, one high school, five vocational schools, and one special school—were impacted.
A nearby hospital was overflowing with patients, so the injured were forced to lie on the floor on blankets and mattresses or inside temporary tents. Due to widespread power outages on Monday night, patients were treated in the dark and by torches.
From the busy hospital parking lot, Cucu, a 48-year-old local, told Reuters, “Everything fell behind me and I was crushed beneath this child.”
“I dug up two of my kids who survived… She added through sobs, “I brought two others here, and one is still missing.
As night fell on Monday, at least 25 people were remained buried beneath the debris in Cianjur, according to Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB. Reaching the victims has been made more difficult by power outages, ruined roads, and more than 80 aftershocks.
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According to Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokeswoman, hundreds of police officers have been sent out to help with rescue operations as of Tuesday morning, according to the Antara state news agency.
The key objective for the staff today is to concentrate on evacuating victims, he said.
On Tuesday, authorities were making an effort to enter Cugenang, which had been cut off by a landslide.
More than 5,000 people were left homeless and at least 2,200 dwellings were destroyed by the earthquake, according to the national disaster agency (BNPB). It claimed to have verified the deaths of 62 individuals but not those of an additional 100.
Living in the Cianjur village of Padaluyu, Mus Mustopa told Indonesia’s Kompas TV that he assisted a family in finding the body of an 80-year-old woman who had perished in the earthquake.
He claimed that it happened suddenly. “I wasn’t ready and witnessed homes being reduced to rubble… About 10 of the 50 damaged homes are severely damaged.
Across Cianjur, there were numerous landslides reported.
Volunteer for the Indonesian Red Cross Ima Mafazah reported that tremors persisted into the evening on Monday.
“Earthquakes continue to occur, but they are no longer as severe as they once were. It did so once more just a moment ago. According to her, many people don’t want to stay in their homes because they are traumatized, afraid, and sleeping outside.
According to Mafazah, homes had sustained damage over a large area, and access was challenging because of the crumbling roads. The Indonesian Red Cross sent nurses on motorcycles to four of the worst-affected areas, which are about an hour away from the main town, in order to reach the injured there.
Up to 242,000 people may have experienced “extremely strong shaking,” and up to 978,000 people may have experienced “strong shaking,” according to the US Geological Survey’s Pager system. Even in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, which is around 60 miles (100 km) distant, high rise structures trembled as a result of the earthquake.
Lawyer Mayadita Waluyo, 22, told Agence France-Presse that as the earthquake hit in Jakarta, terrified employees fled for the exits of their building. “I was working when the ground beneath me began to tremble. I could definitely feel the tremor,” she remarked.
Due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the most seismically and volcanically active region in the world, Indonesia is particularly susceptible to earthquakes.
A magnitude-6.2 earthquake that struck West Sumatra province in February left at least 25 people dead and more than 460 others hurt. A similar-sized earthquake struck West Sulawesi province in January 2021, causing more than 100 fatalities and approximately 6,500 injuries.
In 2004, a devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed approximately 230,000 people in a dozen nations, the majority of them in Indonesia.
