Indonesian earthquake: rescuers search for survivors trapped in rubble

Indonesian rescue workers were racing to reach people still trapped in rubble one day after an earthquake struck the main island of Java, killing at least 162 people, many of them children, and injuring hundreds more.

Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, said 162 people had been killed.

Provisional data released by the authorities, and cited by Save the Children, said there were about 51 education sites affected, including 30 elementary schools, 12 junior high schools, one high school, five vocational schools, and one special school.

At a local hospital, overwhelmed by the number of patients, the injured lay on the floor on mattresses and blankets, or under makeshift tents. On Monday night, victims were treated in the dark, under torch light, due to widespread powercuts.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of police officers had been deployed to assist in rescue efforts, Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesperson told the Antara state news agency.

Officials were working on Tuesday to reach the area of Cugenang, which had been blocked off by a landslide.

The earthquake damaged at least 2,200 homes and displaced more than 5,000 people, the national disaster agency (BNPB) said. It said it had confirmed the deaths of 62 people, but had not verified 100 additional victims.

Several landslides were reported across Cianjur.

Ima Mafazah, a volunteer with the Indonesian Red Cross, said tremors continued late into the evening on Monday.

Homes had been damaged across a wide area, and access was difficult due to cracked roads, said Mafazah. Nurses had been sent by the Indonesian Red Cross on motorbikes to reach the injured in four of the worst-affected areas, about one hour from the main town, that were otherwise inaccessible.

In February, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 others in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a quake of similar magnitude killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report