A strong earthquake on Monday killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds on the main Indonesian island. Terrified residents fled into the street, some covered in blood and debris.
Many of the dead were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons in Islamic schools when they collapsed, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said, announcing the latest death toll in the remote area. rural.
Hospitals were overwhelmed with the injured, and the death toll is expected to continue to rise. Estimates were not immediately available due to the remoteness of the area’s rural population, but many structures collapsed, and residents and emergency workers braced for grim news.
“The buildings were completely leveled,” said Dwi Sarmadi, who works for an Islamic educational foundation in a neighboring district.
Approximately 175,000 people live in the city of Cianjur, which is part of a mountainous district of the same name with more than 2.5 million inhabitants. Known for their piety, the people of Cianjur live mostly in villages of one- and two-story buildings and smaller houses in the countryside.
Kamil said more than 13,000 people whose homes were badly damaged were taken to evacuation centers.
Emergency workers tended to the wounded on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on terraces and in car parks in the Cianjur region, about a three-hour drive from the capital Java. The injured, including children, were given oxygen masks and intravenous lines. Some were revived.
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Cianjur regional hospital building, waiting to be treated.
“I was working inside my office building. The building was not damaged, but since the earthquake shook very hard, many things fell down. My leg was hit by heavy things,” Sarmadi said.
Sarmadi was waiting near a tent outside the hospital after some overflowing clinics couldn’t see him. Many people arrived in worse shape.
“I really hope they can see me soon,” he said.
Hasan, a construction worker who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name, was also one of the survivors being taken to hospital.
“I fainted. It was very strong,” Hasan said.
“I saw my friends run to escape the building. But it was too late to get out and I hit the wall.”
Residents, some crying and holding their children, fled damaged houses after the 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the region in West Java province late in the afternoon at a depth of 10 kilometers ( 6.2 miles). It also caused panic in the Jakarta metropolitan area, where tall buildings swayed and some people were evacuated.
In many houses in Cianjur, pieces of concrete and tiles fell into the rooms.
Shopkeeper Dewi Risma was serving customers when the earthquake struck, and she ran to the exit.
“Vehicles driving on the road stopped because the earthquake was very strong,” he said. “I felt it shake (sic) three times, but the first time was the strongest for about 10 seconds. The roof of the store next door to the one I work had collapsed, and people were saying there had been two hits.”
Twenty-five people were still trapped in the rubble in the village of Cijedil, the spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Abdul Muhari, said earlier in the day.
Several landslides closed roads in the Cianjur district. Among the dozens of damaged buildings is a hospital, according to the agency. There were power outages.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recorded at least 25 aftershocks.
“The earthquake felt very strong. My colleagues and I decided to leave our office on the ninth floor using the emergency stairs,” said Vidi Primadhania, a worker in the capital, where many residents ran into the streets and others hid under desks.
The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific basin.
In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
In 2004, a powerful earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.
Information of: The Times of Israel
Photo credits: PA
