At least 25 people remain trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings – Death toll to rise, rescue survey officials say
More than 60 are dead and hundreds injured from the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia’s West Java province as rescuers scramble to reach survivors trapped in the rubble amid ongoing aftershocks.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the city of Sianjur, about 75 kilometers southeast of the capital Jakarta.
Disaster response agency BNPB reported that 62 people were killed. At least 25 remain trapped in the debris of the collapsed buildings. A spokesman for the agency, Abdul Muhari, said the search would continue through the night.
West Java Governor Riduan Kamil told reporters that too many buildings had collapsed or been damaged. “There are residents trapped in isolated areas (…) so we assume that the number of injured and dead will increase,” he added.
According to BNPB more than 2,200 houses have been damaged and 5,300 people have been displaced.
Electricity has been cut and there are problems with telecommunications, he said Herman Sucherman, the head of the Sianjur municipality. He explained that a landslide makes it difficult to evacuate an area.
Hundreds of victims received first aid in the parking lot of a hospital, under an awning. In other districts of Sianjur, residents spread mats in fields or in tents and gathered together. The buildings around them were almost leveled.
Authorities are still trying to determine the full extent of the damage caused by the quake, which was relatively shallow, with a focal depth of 10 kilometers, according to with the meteorology and geophysics service BMKG.
A woman, Vani, who is being treated at Sianjur Central Hospital, told MetroTV that the walls of her house collapsed in an aftershock. “The walls and the wardrobe just fell down… Everything was flattened, I don’t know where my mother and father are”he said.
Two hours after the first earthquake, 25 aftershocks were recorded. BMKG is concerned that landslides may occur if it rains.
In 2004 a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that hit 14 countries and killed 226,000 people – more than half of them Indonesians.
RES-EMP
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