CIANJUR, Indonesia — The death toll from an
earthquake on
Indonesia’s main island of Java jumped to 268 on Tuesday, as
rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble and relatives started to bury
their loved ones.
اضافة اعلان
As body bags emerged from crumpled buildings in
Indonesia’s most populous province, West Java, rescue efforts turned to any
survivors still under debris in areas made hard to reach by the mass of
obstacles thrown onto the roads by the quake.
The epicenter of the shallow 5.6-magnitude quake on
Monday was near the town of Cianjur where most of the victims were killed,
hundreds were injured and dozens feared trapped as buildings collapsed and
landslides were triggered.
The death toll jumped dramatically again later on
Tuesday from 162 to 268, Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s national disaster
mitigation agency, or BNPB, told a press conference.
At least 151 people remain missing and more than
1,000 have been injured, said the official, who like many Indonesians goes by
one name.
“The focus is still on the search and evacuation of
victims. That’s the priority,” he said. “When the emergency response ends,
hopefully everyone has been found.”
At a burial in a
village near Cianjur, relatives of 48-year-old victim Husein, who was killed
while building a house when the quake struck, broke into hysterical wails
before his body was lowered into the ground.
“I just lost a brother 10 days ago. Now I’ve lost
another brother,” said his sister Siti Rohmah as she sobbed uncontrollably.
“I kept waiting, hoping he would survive and that
nothing bad would happen to him.”
One of the dozens of rescuers, 34-year-old Dimas
Reviansyah, said teams were using chainsaws and excavators to break through
piles of felled trees and debris to find survivors.
“I haven’t slept at all since yesterday, but I must
keep going because there are victims who have not been found,” he said.
Drone footage taken by AFP showed the extent of a
quake-triggered landslide where a wall of brown earth was only punctuated by
workers using heavy machinery to clear a road.
President Joko Widodo visited the area on Tuesday,
offering compensation for victims and ordering disaster and rescue agencies to
“mobilize their personnel”.
‘State of shock’
Many of those killed were children, according to the head of Indonesia’s
national rescue agency Basarnas.
“They were at
school, at 1pm, they were still studying,” Henri Alfiandi told a press
conference.
Some of those dead
were students at an Islamic boarding school, while others were killed in their
homes when roofs and walls caved in on them.
The search
operation on Tuesday was made more challenging because of severed road links
and temporary power outages in parts of the largely rural, mountainous region.
Those who survived
camped outside in near-total darkness surrounded by fallen debris, shattered
glass and chunks of concrete.
Doctors treated
patients outdoors at makeshift wards after the quake, which was felt as far
away as the capital Jakarta.
One father carried
his dead son wrapped in white cloth through the streets of his village near
Cianjur.
Others searched
for their missing relatives in the chaos.
Rahmi Leonita’s
father was riding a motorbike to Cianjur when the quake struck.
“His phone is not
active. I am in a state of shock now. I am very worried but I am still
hopeful,” said the 38-year-old, tears falling down her face as she spoke.
Aftershocks
The devastation caused by the quake was made worse by a wave of 62
smaller aftershocks that relentlessly shook Cianjur, a town of about 175,000
people.
The Geological
Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in an
analysis posted online Monday that the soil make-up of the area could have
exacerbated the impact of the quake.
It said the area’s
“undulating to steep hills” were made up of “weathered” and “young” volcanic
debris.
“These ...
deposits are generally soft, loose, unconsolidated, and strengthen the effects
of shocks, making them prone to earthquakes,” it said.
Indonesia
experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the
Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.
A 6.2-magnitude quake that
shook Sulawesi island in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left
thousands homeless.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
