Tragedy in Indonesia: the death toll rises to 252 after the terrible earthquake on the island of Java
At least 252 dead, 31 missing and more than 300 injured left the 5.6 magnitude earthquake that rocked the Indonesian island of Java, according to a new report released Tuesday by the municipal administration of Cianjur.
Adam, spokesman for the administration of the city – the most affected – and who, like many Indonesians, has only one name, posted the new toll on Instagram and confirmed it to the AFP. “This is official data,” he said. The previous report showed 162 deaths.
The earthquake epicenter Monday, magnitude 5.6 and shallow, was detected near the town of Cianjurin the province of West Javathe most populated in the country.
As rescuers fired body bags destroyed buildings, the focus was on finding survivors and reach hard-to-reach areas due to fallen obstacles on the road.
Dimas Reviansyah, a 34-year-old rescuer, explained that their teams use chainsaws and bulldozers push through fallen trees and rubble to the areas where they thought they could find civilians.
The Indonesian Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said late Monday that at least 25 people were still buried under the remains of the buildings. The region’s military leader, Rudy Saladin, told AFP that “there may be more”.
The rescue operation was hampered by road and electricity cuts in parts of this rural and mountainous area. Tuesday morning, 89% of power grid in Cianjur had recovered, state news agency Antara said.
Governor of West Java Ridwan Kamil indicated that some 300 people were injured and more than 13,000 were transported at evacuation centers. Those who survived they camped out in the open in near total darknesssurrounded by rubble, broken glass and large concrete rubble.
The devastation caused by the earthquake aggravated by a wave of 62 small aftershockswith magnitudes of 1.8 to 4, which shook this city of 175,000 inhabitants.
With information from AFP…
Source: El Heraldo De Mexico
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