An earthquake on the main
Indonesian island of Java has killed scores of people and injured hundreds, say
officials.
The 5.6 magnitude quake struck
Cianjur town in West Java, at a shallow depth of 10km (6 miles), according to
US Geological Survey data.
Scores of people were taken to
hospital, with many treated outside.
Rescuers have worked through the
night to try to save others thought to still be trapped under collapsed
buildings. [LEARN FREE COURSES AND GET CERTIFIED WITHIN 48HRS]
The area where the quake struck
is densely populated and prone to landslides, with poorly built houses reduced
to rubble in many areas.
The exact number of people killed
so far remains unclear. Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB)
has said their official death toll was 103, adding that another figure given by
regional governor Ridwan Kamil - 162 - remains unverified.
BNPB said another 390 people were
wounded and that 7,000 people had taken shelter in various locations in the
area.
Mr Kamil has claimed that a total
of 13,000 had been displaced by the disaster, and that more remained
"trapped in isolated places". He said officials were "under the
assumption that the number of injured and deaths will rise with time"
Herman Suherman, the head of
administration in Cianjur town, said most injuries were bone fractures
sustained from people being trapped by debris in buildings.
"The ambulances keep on
coming from the villages to the hospital," he was quoted by AFP news
agency as saying earlier in the day. "There are many families in villages
that have not been evacuated."
Many of the injured were treated
outside in a hospital car park after the hospital was left without power for
several hours following the quake, West Java's governor said.
On Monday night, Mr Kamil wrote
on Twitter that it could take up to three days for power to be fully restored
to the area. He added that mobile phone reception remained poor and was causing
"a lot of problems" for officials.
The tremor could also be felt in
the capital Jakarta about 100km away, where people were evacuated from
high-rise buildings. [DOWNLOAD LIVE STORM VIDEO CONFERENCING APP]
Office workers rushed out of
buildings in the civic and business district during the tremor, which started
at 13:21 Western Indonesian time (WIT) on Monday, the agency said.
"I was working when the
floor under me was shaking. I could feel the tremor clearly. I tried to do
nothing to process what it was, but it became even stronger and lasted for some
time," lawyer Mayadita Waluyo told AFP. [DOWNLOAD LIVE STORM VIDEO CONFERENCING APP]
An office worker named Ahmad
Ridwan told news agency Reuters: "We are used to this [earthquakes] in
Jakarta, but people were so nervous just now, so we also panicked."
Earthquakes are common in
Indonesia, which sits on the "ring of fire" area of tectonic activity
in the Pacific. The country has a history of devastating earthquakes and
tsunamis, with more than 2,000 killed in a 2018 Sulawesi quake.
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