Rescue workers in Indonesia are scrambling to reach people still trapped in the rubble a day after an earthquake destroyed a city in West Java, killing dozens and injuring hundreds as buildings collapsed. Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told that hundreds of police officers were joining rescue efforts in the city of Cianjur, the closest to the epicenter of the 5.6-magnitude shallow earthquake. The city of 175,000 is located in the mountainous region of West Java, Indonesia’s most densely populated province.
“The main task of today’s personnel is to focus on the evacuation of victims,” ​​Prasetyo said. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said Monday’s earthquake killed at least 162 people, many of them children, and injured more than 300. The Indonesian National Disaster Agency (BNPB) also confirmed the number. The governor warned that some residents remained trapped in isolated locations and that the death toll could rise.
Authorities were acting “under the assumption that the number of injured and dead would rise over time,” he said. Some of the dead were students at an Islamic boarding school, while others were killed in their own homes when roofs and walls collapsed on them. “The room collapsed and my feet were buried under the debris. It all happened so quickly,” 14-year-old student Aprizal Mulyadi told. He said he was pulled to safety by his friend Zulfikar, who later died after being trapped under the rubble.
“I was devastated to see him like that, but I couldn’t help him because my legs and back were injured,” he said. A hospital parking lot in Cianjur was flooded with victims overnight, some treated in makeshift tents, others connected to intravenous drips on the pavement as paramedics stitched up patients under torchlight. “Everything collapsed under me and I was crushed under this child,” Cucu, 48, who went to hospital, told. “Two of my children survived, I dug them out… I brought two more here and one is still missing,” she said through tears.
Landslides, power outages
Jessica Washington of Rumah Sakit Sayang Hospital said paramedics were forced to treat patients in the building’s parking lot as Monday’s tremors left extensive cracks in the walls.”Since our arrival in the early hours of the morning, we have heard the constant sound of ambulances trying to reach those in need,” she said. “Many of the victims in this hospital are children with head injuries. Many children also have broken bones and officials say dozens have died here.”
Save the Children Indonesia said it sent a team to Cianjur on Tuesday to assess the impact of the disaster and determine the needs of affected children and adults. It also prepares school tents, school equipment, educational recreational equipment and equipment for family hygiene for distribution. At SMP Junior High School 5, one of the schools Save the Children works with in West Java, teacher Mia Saharosa said everyone was forced to evacuate during classes.
“It was a shock to all of us when it happened in the middle of the learning process… We all gathered in the field, the children were scared and crying, worried about their families at home. We embrace each other, strengthen each other and continue to pray,” the NGO said in a statement. Survivors of the West Java earthquake were treated at a hospital in Cianjur, Indonesia Monday’s earthquake killed at least 162 people and injured 300 others. at least 2,200 households. About 13,000 people were taken to evacuation shelters, according to the governor.
At a shelter in Ciherang village near Cianjur, Nunung, a 37-year-old woman, said she pulled herself and her 12-year-old son from the rubble of their collapsed home. “I screamed for help because no one came to help us, I had to kick myself free,” she said, her face covered in dried blood. “Nothing left, nothing to save but the clothes on our backs. Rescue work was complicated by power outages in some areas and more than 80 aftershocks. Straddling the so-called Ring of Fire, an active seismic zone where different plates in the Earth’s crust meet, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
In September 2018, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck in shallow waters off the city of Palu in Sulawesi, triggering a tsunami, liquefaction and landslides that devastated the city and killed more than 4,000 people. In December 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a giant tsunami that washed ashore in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people, more than half of them in Indonesia.
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