At least 268 people have died and there are more than 1,083 wounded and 151 disappeared by the earthquake of magnitude 5.6 registered this Monday on the island of Java, in Indonesia, according to the latest part of the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) of the country. The quake occurred 10 kilometers deep near the town of Cianjur. Authorities reported Tuesday that 22,000 homes were destroyed and more than 58,000 people have been displaced.
As detailed by the governor of West Java, Ridwan Kamil, the tremor occurred when schools were open, hence the majority of the deceased are minors. “Until tonight we will still be detailing the percentage, but all the reports on the ground say that the majority are children“, has specified.
According to the Indonesian television channel Kompas, the large number of injuries has caused some of the patients to be treated in the parking of the hospital of Cianjur, in West Java, in the absence of beds to treat all the victims.
To the records already mentioned, it must be added that more than 22,000 homes They present damages between 60% and the entirety of their infrastructure. In addition, this earthquake has caused a power outage to more than 365,000 people in Cianjur, of which the authorities have stressed “restore electricity quickly”.
Tremor 100 kilometers away
According to the Indonesian National Meteorological, Geophysical and Climatological Agency (BMKG), the 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the province of West Java, the most populous in Indonesia with almost 50 million inhabitants, and, as of Tuesday morning, 118 aftershocks were recordedwith magnitudes between 1.5 and 4.2 on the Richter seismological scale.
The epicenter of the earthquake occurred at ten kilometers south of the city of Cianjur. A tremor that could also be felt in Jakarta, some 100 kilometers awaywhere local authorities have evacuated citizens from high-rise buildings, according to what they point out from the BBC.
Many of the workers ran away. “I was working when the ground under me was shaking. I could clearly feel the tremor,” said the lawyer Mayadita Waluyo for AFP. For his part, office worker Ahmad Ridwan, to the Reuters news agency, has taken it differently: “We are accustomed to the earthquakes in Jakarta, but people were so nervous at this time that we have also panicked.”
For its part, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has indicated that the earthquake has shaken the capital, with no reports of serious damage. “Keep calm, don’t panic and evacuate through the designated routes”, he recommended through his account on the social network Twitter. The BMKG has indicated that no risk of tsunami.
