JAKARTA, Nov 22: An earthquake rocked Java, Indonesian island, at 1:21 pm local
time on Monday killing 162 people, injuring several hundreds, and leaving
a trail of devastation. The quake measured 5.6 on Richter scale. Search is on
for survivors trapped under the rubble. A series of aftershocks also followed.
The tremblor was not one of the strongest but it was shallow and occurred within
the land and therefore the casualties were high.
The epicentre was the Cianjur in mountainous West Java, 75 km southeast of
Capital Jakarta, at a depth of 10 km. Cianjur has mostly single and two-storey
buildings. Hundreds of buildings, including schools, hospitals and others housing
public facilities were damaged. Power failure hampered treatment of the injured
at hospitals. There are four hospitals in the town. Helicopters are dropping
medicines.
The quake was felt in Jakarta. High-rise buildings in the Capital swayed. People
ran out of offices and homes.
In February 2022, a 6.2 earthquake killed 25 people and injured 460 others
in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, another major earthquake killed over
100 people and injured 6,500 in West Sulawesi province. Located on the ‘Ring
of Fire’, Indonesia experiences frequent earthquakes and tsunamis. It has a
population of 270 million.
