Indonesia earthquake toll rises to 268, rescuers look for survivors

The number of fatalities from an earthquake on Java, the largest island in Indonesia, increased to 268 on Tuesday as rescuers looked for survivors among the debris and family members began to bury their loved ones.

Rescue attempts focused on any survivors remaining beneath rubble in regions very difficult to access by the abundance of barriers pushed onto the highways by the earthquake as body bags emerged from collapsed buildings in West Java, the province with the highest population in Indonesia.

The shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Monday was centered close to the village of Cianjur, where the majority of the fatalities, injuries, and possible trapped people occurred.

Later on Tuesday, Suharyanto, the chief of Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, announced during a news conference that the dead toll had increased sharply once again from 162 to 268.

The official, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, stated that more than 1,000 people had been hurt and at least 151 people are still missing.

“The search and evacuation of casualties remain the main priorities.
That should come first, he declared.
“Hopefully, everyone will have been located before the emergency response is through.”

During Husein’s funeral in a hamlet close to Cianjur, his family let out frantic sobs as his body was put into the grave. Husein, 48, was murdered in the earthquake while working on a home.

“My brother passed away barely 10 days ago.
Siti Rohmah, who was his sister, wailed excessively as she added, “Now I’ve lost another sibling.

I continued to watch in the hopes that he would live and have no negative outcomes.

A 34-year-old rescuer named Dimas Reviansyah claimed crews were sifting through mounds of fallen trees and debris with excavators and chainsaws to look for survivors.

Since yesterday, I haven’t slept at all, but I must keep moving forward since there are still victims who haven’t been located, he added.

Drone footage captured by AFP revealed the full extent of a landslide brought on by the earthquake, which was only broken up by workers using

Tuesday, President Joko Widodo paid a visit to the region, giving compensation to victims and directing relief organizations to “mobilise their employees.”

In a “state of shock”

According to Basarnas, the president of Indonesia’s national rescue organization, many of those slain were youngsters.

Henri Alfiandi stated during a news conference, “They were at school, and it was after one, and they were still studying.”

Others were murdered in their houses as their roofs and walls collapsed on them, while others of the victims were pupils at an Islamic boarding school.

Due to broken road connections and brief power outages in several areas of the primarily rural and hilly region, the search effort on Tuesday was rendered more difficult.

Those who made it outdoors tented in almost complete darkness amid falling objects, shattered glass, and concrete pieces.

After the earthquake, which could be felt as far away as the capital Jakarta, doctors treated patients outside in temporary wards.

One father strolled through the streets of his hamlet near Cianjur with his dead kid wrapped in white fabric.

In the confusion, other people looked for their missing family.

When the earthquake hit, Rahmi Leonita’s father was traveling to Cianjur on a motorcycle.

His phone isn’t ringing.
I’m now in a state of shock.
The 38-year-old remarked, tears streaming down her cheeks, “I am really scared but I am still hoping.

I was unable to stop it.

Evacuees sat at a shelter in Ciherang hamlet near Cianjur.

The chilly morning ground was covered with tarpaulins.

Nunung, a 37-year-old lady, had dug her 12-year-old son and herself out of their fallen house’s debris.

“I had to dig to liberate us.

Her face smeared in dried blood, she told AFP from the refuge that “nothing is gone and there is nothing I could salvage.”

A series of 62 lesser aftershocks that mercilessly pounded Cianjur, a town of around 175,000 inhabitants, added to the earthquake’s destruction.

In a report published online on Monday, the Geological Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources suggested that the region’s soil composition may have made the earthquake’s effects worse.

It claimed that the “weathered” and “young” volcanic material that made up the region’s “undulating to steep slopes” was present.

According to the report, “These… deposits are often soft, loose, unconsolidated, and increase the impact of shocks, rendering them susceptible to earthquakes.”

On Tuesday, the presidents of Canada, France, and Australia joined Russian President Vladimir Putin in expressing their sympathies.

Indonesia’s location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where tectonic plates meet, causes regular seismic and volcanic activity.

In January 2021, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck the island of Sulawesi killed over 100 people and left others homeless.

AFP