Indonesia continues rescue efforts after deadly earthquake
Jakarta, Nov 22 (EFE).- Indonesian emergency services were working Tuesday to locate and rescue victims of the magnitude-5.6 earthquake that shook West Java province, killing at least 103 people.
Monday’s earthquake, which occurred at 1.21 pm local time (06:21 GMT) in Cianjur Regency in the country’s most populous province, also injured around 390 people, while 25 people are missing, according to the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) in a statement Tuesday.
“The majority of residents died because they were crushed by the rubble of a collapsed building when the incident occurred,” the BNPB said.
The death toll was set at 103 by the BNPB on Tuesday, down from a figure of 162 provided by local authorities on Monday.
The disaster agency warned, however, that the number of victims was “still increasing.”
“The local Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) continues to collect data related to the number of fatalities, damage to infrastructure, refugee locations, and urgent needs,” the BNPB said.
In addition to the casualties, at least 7,060 people have been displaced and more than 3,160 houses were damaged, including 59 heavily, it added.
Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity in which some 7,000 earthquakes are recorded each year, most of them moderate.
One of the country’s deadliest catastrophes occurred in 2004, when a huge magnitude-9.1 earthquake off the tip of Sumatra generated a tsunami that swept the Indian Ocean, causing more than 227,000 deaths in a dozen nations. EFE
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