Indonesian earthquake: rescuers search for survivors trapped in rubble

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Indonesian rescue workers were racing to reach people still trapped in rubble after an earthquake devastated a West Java town, killing at least 162 people and injuring hundreds more, as officials warned the death toll may rise.

The epicentre of Monday’s shallow 5.6-magnitude quake was close to the town of Cianjur, in a mountainous area of Indonesia’s most populous province.

The tremor on Monday afternoon prompted panicked residents to flee on to the streets as buildings collapsed.

Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, said 162 people had been killed.

“The majority of those who died were children,” he said, adding that many were students who were taking extra lessons. “So many incidents occurred at several Islamic schools.”

Authorities were operating “under the assumption that the number of injured and [dead] will rise with time”, he said.

Overnight a hospital parking lot in Cianjur was inundated with victims, some treated in makeshift tents, others hooked up to intravenous drips on the pavement, while medical workers stitched up patients under the light of torches.

“Everything collapsed beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child,” Cucu, a 48-year-old resident told Reuters from the crowded hospital parking area.

“Two of my kids survived, I dug them up … Two others I brought here, and one is still missing,” she said through tears.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of police officers had been deployed to assist in rescue efforts, Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesperson told the Antara state news agency.

“Today’s main task order for personnel is to focus on evacuating victims,” he said.

Officials were working on Tuesday to reach the area of Cugenang, which had been blocked off by a landslide. Rescue efforts were complicated by electricity outages in some areas, and more than 80 aftershocks.

Footage from Cianjur showed a school building with a collapsed roof, as well as badly damaged homes where brick walls had been torn down.

GenSuharyanto, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), said the nearby Sayang hospital had no power after the quake, hampering efforts to treat victims, and that more medical staff were needed.

The earthquake damaged at least 2,200 homes and displaced more than 5,000 people, the BNPB said.

Mus Mustopa, who lives in Padaluyu, a village in Cianjur, told Indonesia’s Kompas TV he helped a family recover the body of an 80-year-old woman who had died in the quake.

It happened suddenly, he said. “I wasn’t prepared and saw houses reduced to rubble … Some 50 houses are damaged, with around 10 being heavily damaged.”

Several landslides were reported across Cianjur. Dozens of buildings were damaged, including an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities, the BNPB said. Information was still being collected about the extent of casualties and damage, the agency added.

Ima Mafazah, a volunteer with the Indonesian Red Cross, said tremors continued late into the evening on Monday.

“Until now, the earthquake still happens, but not as big as before. A minute ago it happened again. Many people don’t want to stay at their homes,” she said, adding that people were traumatised, afraid and sleeping outside.

Homes had been damaged across a wide area, and access was difficult due to cracked roads, said Mafazah. Nurses had been sent by the Indonesian Red Cross on motorbikes to reach the injured in four of the worst-affected areas, about one hour from the main town, that were otherwise inaccessible.

The quake was felt in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, about 60 miles (100km) away, where some buildings were evacuated, and high-rises were shaken.

The US Geological Surveys’s Pager system estimated that up to 242,000 people were exposed to “very strong shaking” and up to 978,000 people to “strong shaking”.

Mayadita Waluyo, a 22-year-old lawyer, told Agence France-Presse that panicked workers ran for the exits of their building in Jakarta as the quake struck. “I was working when the floor under me was shaking. I could feel the tremor clearly,” she said.

Indonesia is especially vulnerable to earthquakes because of its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world.

In February, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 others in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a quake of similar magnitude killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report