At least 162 people have died and hundreds have been injured as a result of an earthquake on Java, the largest island in Indonesia, according to regional governor Ridwan Kamil.
According to data from the US Geological Survey, the 5.6-magnitude earthquake that rocked Cianjur town in West Java occurred at a shallow depth of 10 km (six miles).
Numerous patients received outside care while hundreds were brought to hospitals.
Rescuers worked through the night to attempt to reach those who they believed were still trapped under fallen structures.
The epicenter of the earthquake is a heavily populated, landslide-prone region where many poorly constructed homes have been turned to rubble.
According to the most recent statistics available, at least 62 persons have perished, according to earlier estimates from Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
Speaking to local media, Mr. Kamil said that the earthquake had harmed 326 individuals, most of them “suffered fractures from being crushed in debris.”
He did, however, issue a warning that some locals were still “stuck in isolated locations” and said that authorities were “under the premise that the number of wounded and fatalities would climb over time.”
The governor of West Java stated that the tragedy had caused more than 13,000 people to be homeless, while the BNPB said that the Java earthquake had destroyed more than 2,200 dwellings.
The majority of injuries, according to Herman Suherman, the administrative chief of Cianjur Town, were bone fractures brought on by persons being trapped by building rubble.
The AFP news agency cited him as stating earlier in the day, “The ambulances keep on arriving from the villages to the hospital. There are a lot of families in villages that have not left.
According to the governor of West Java, many of the wounded were treated outdoors in a hospital parking lot after the facility lost electricity for many hours as a result of the earthquake.
About 100 kilometers away, in Jakarta, the capital, individuals in high-rise buildings were evacuated as a result of the earthquake.
According to the agency, office personnel in the civic and commercial area fled from their buildings during the Monday quake, which began at 13:21 Western Indonesian Time (WIT).
“I was working when the ground under me began to tremble. I was acutely aware of the trembling. I made no effort to understand what it was, but it became stronger and persisted for a while “Mayadita Waluyo, a lawyer, said AFP.
“We are accustomed to these [earthquakes] in Jakarta, but people were so scared just now, so we too panicked,” office worker Ahmad Ridwan told the news agency Reuters.
Indonesia, which is located in the Pacific “ring of fire” region of tectonic activity, experiences earthquakes often. With almost 2,000 people lost in the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, the nation has a history of severe earthquakes and tsunamis.
