Death Toll of Indonesia’s Quake Rises to 162
13,784 were forced to flee their homes and take shelter as their houses were damaged.
Jakarta: A total of 162 people were killed after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s West Java province on Monday, officials said.
The quake has also caused heavy damages to many houses, buildings and infrastructure facilities. The tremors were strongly felt in the national capital Jakarta.
Up to 13,784 people were forced to flee their homes and take shelter as their houses were damaged by the quake, according to data issued by the disaster management and mitigation agency of the district of Cianjur, one of the hardest-hit areas.
The infrastructure facilities damaged by the quake include roads, a bridge, school buildings, office buildings, mosques and health facilities, it said.
The significant rise of the number of casualties was due to a new report of landslides that buried about 100 residents, Nena Fatimah, senior officer at the data and information unit of the district’s disaster management and mitigation agency, told Xinhua by phone.
The agency has set up 47 centers providing aids including foods and medicine for the quake-impacted victims, according to spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency Abdul Muhari.
The injured have been treated at hospitals in the district of Cianjur in the province, according to head of the National Disaster Management Agency Suharyanto.
The quake struck at 13:21 Jakarta time (0621 GMT) with the epicenter located at 10 km southwest of the district of Cianjur in West Java province, and with a depth of 10 km, the meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency said.