Earthquake of magnitude 5.6 hits the island of Indonesia.
The death toll rose to 268 on the island of Indonesia, struck by an earthquake on Tuesday. The search for the survivors in the debris by the rescuers is still on, struggling to sift the rubble.
The rescue efforts continue to find survivors under the rubble so that the relatives could respectfully bury their loved ones.Â
Indonesia earthquake
The earthquake was of a shallow magnitude of 5.6 with the epicenter near the town of Cianjur, which was the most hard hit as most of the victims were claimed dead and several were wounded with hundreds still trapped under buildings and sites of landslides.
The death toll jumped from 162 to 268 on Tuesday as stated by the head of Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agencies, Suharyanto or the BNPB at a press conference.
Around 150 people are still missing and more than thousands are wounded.
He said that the focus and priority was still on to search and evacuate victims from the rubble of buildings and landslides . He hoped that everybody could be found by the time the emergency response ended.
The teams are using machines like chainsaws and excavators to cut through the piles of trees and debris to find people trapped.
Drone footage shows that the earthquake triggered a landslide at the site where a wall of brown earth was punctuated by workers using heavy machinery to clear the road .
Indonesia earthquake
The site was visited by the Indonesian President Joko Widodo. He offered compensation to the victims and ordered the disaster and rescue agency to quickly mobilize their personnel.
A number of killed were children as per the head of Indonesia’s national rescue agency, Basarnas
Most children were at school when the earthquake hit around 1 .
A lot of them were students studying at an Islamic boarding school, whereas a number of them were also killed in their homes when the building caved in on them .
The rescue operation faced a lot of hindrance because of power outrage and damaged roadways, especially in the rural and mountainous region of the island .
Even those who survived were put to face traumatic visuals of falling in debris with chunks of concrete and building material in complete darkness .
The patients are being treated outdoors at makeshift wards.
Visuals of relatives carrying their dead loved ones wrapped in cloth through the streets could be seen, with still a number of people searching their missing relatives amidst the entire chaos.Â
Nunung, a 37-year-old woman rescued herself and her 12 year old son, out of the remains of their fallen home. She told the news agency, the AFP that she freed them by digging manually and there was nothing left for her to be saved.
In Indonesia the situation was made worse and even devastating due to a course of 62 smaller after-shocks that trembled the town of Cianjur, having a population of around 1,750,000.
The geological agency of the Indonesian Ministry of energy and mineral resources said that the soil make up of the region exacerbated the impact of the earthquake.
After doing an analysis, it said that the region consisted of landscape ranging from undulating land to steep hills that were formed of weathered and volcanic debris.
These were mostly made of soft, loose and consolidated material that made them prone to the quake.Â
A number of leaders ranging from the Australian Prime Minister to the Russian President and Canadian and French leaders offered their condolences to the victims.
Indonesia has had a history of experiencing frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its geography and its position on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’.
The 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook Sulawesi island, killing more than hundred people and leaving thousands homeless.
Highlights:
An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck West Java Province
Wrecked buildings and triggered landslides in Cianjur
Hundreds of people dead, thousands injured and still missing
Modi expressed solidarity to the calamity and its victims
Indonesian President earlier hosted the G20 summit, 2022
