Indonesia quake kills 62, injures hundreds

A 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds more in Indonesia’s West Java province. Rescuers are trying to reach out to survivors trapped under rubble in a series of aftershocks.

The epicenter was near the town of Cianjur in West Java, about 75 km southeast of the capital Jakarta.

Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said 62 people were killed.

At least 25 people were trapped under the collapsed building.

BNPB spokesman Abdul Muharri said the search would continue overnight.

“So many buildings have collapsed,” West Java governor Ridwan Kamil told reporters.

“There are residents trapped in quarantine…so we assume the number of injured and dead will increase over time.”

Indonesia straddles the so-called ‘Pacific Rim’, a highly seismically active zone where different crustal plates meet and produce numerous earthquakes and volcanoes.

More than 2,200 homes were damaged and more than 5,300 people were displaced, according to BNPB.

Cianjur government chief Herman Suherman said power was down and communication activity was disrupted, adding that landslides were preventing evacuation in one area.

Hundreds of victims were being treated in the hospital parking lot, some under emergency tents.

Elsewhere in Cianjur, residents huddled in mats and tents in the fields while surrounding buildings were almost completely reduced to rubble.

The Bureau of Meteorology and Geophysics (BMKG) said authorities were still working to establish the full extent of the damage caused by the quake.

Vani, who was being treated at Cianjur’s main hospital, told MetroTV that the walls of his house collapsed in the aftershocks.

“The wall and wardrobe just fell down…everything is flat and I don’t even know where my mother and father are,” she said.

The BMKG said 25 aftershocks were recorded within two hours, adding that more landslides could occur in the event of heavy rains.

In Jakarta, some people fled their offices in the central business district, while others reported buildings shaking and furniture moving, according to Reuters witnesses.

In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra, sending a tsunami that hit 14 countries and killed 226,000 people, more than half of whom were Indonesian, along the Indian Ocean coast.