Disasters & Accidents

Death toll from Indonesia earthquake rises to 310

Jakarta, Nov 25 (EFE).- The death toll from an Indonesian earthquake this week has risen to 310, officials said on Friday, while rescuers continue to look for 24 missing persons whose chances of survival dwindled fast.

The 5.6 magnitude quake has left over 2,000 injured and rendered more than 62,000 homeless, data from disaster management showed.

More than a third of the dead are children, as the earthquakes struck the densely populated region of West Java during school hours, wreaking havoc on dozens of educational facilities.

The search and rescue teams recovered 17 bodies on Friday buried under the rubble and landslides caused by the tremor.

The quake devastated various areas of Cianjur agency, the epicenter of the earthquake, with a population of 170,000 people.

Although the authorities acknowledged that the chances of finding survivors four days after the quake were slim, they assured that the efforts to locate them would continue with the same intensity.

The disaster management agency head Suharyanto told reporters that they would work with the same “manpower, enthusiasm, infrastructure…until the last person is found.”

But the search and rescue operations and the distribution of humanitarian aid were hampered by dozens of aftershocks besides torrential rains and the risk of new landslides in the region.

The earthquake on Monday is the second deadliest in the country since 2018 when a tremor and tsunami on the island of Sulawesi killed more than 4,000 people. EFE

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