Schoolchildren among 162 deaths in Indonesia quake

Children at school accounted for many of the 162 dead in an earthquake that devastated a town on Indonesia’s main island of Java, an official said on Tuesday, as rescuers scrambled to reach people trapped in rubble.

Hundreds of people were injured in the quake on Monday and officials warned the death toll was likely to rise. The shallow, 5.6-magnitude tremor struck in mountains in Indonesia’s most populous province of West Java, causing extensive damage to the town of Cianjur and burying at least one village under a landslide.

Landslides and rough terrain were hampering rescue efforts, said Henri Alfiandi, head of National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

“The challenge in the affected area is spread out ... On top of that, the roads in these villages are damaged,” Alfiandi said at a news conference, adding that more than 13,000 people had been evacuated.

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“Most of the casualties are children, because at 1pm [when the quake struck] they were still at school,” he said.

President Joko Widodo flew to Cianjur on Tuesday to encourage rescuers.

“My instruction is to prioritise evacuating victims that are still trapped under rubble,” said the president, who is known as Jokowi.

He offered his condolences to the victims and pledged emergency government support. Reconstruction should include earthquake-prone housing to protect against future disasters, Widodo said.

Survivors gathered overnight in a Cianjur hospital parking lot. Some of the injured were treated in tents, while others were hooked up to intravenous drips on the pavement as medical workers attended to patients under torch light.

“Everything collapsed beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child,” said Cucu, a 48-year-old resident.

“Two of my children survived, I dug them up ... Two others I brought here, and one is still missing,” she said tearfully.

Footage from Kompas TV showed people holding cardboard signs asking for food and shelter, with emergency supplies seeming like they had yet to reach them.

Hundreds of police officers were deployed to help the rescue effort, Dedi Prasetyo, national police spokesperson told the Antara state news agency.

“Today’s main task order for personnel is to focus on evacuating victims,” he said.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said at least 162 people were killed, many of them children, while the national disaster agency (BNPB) put the toll at 103, with 31 missing.

Authorities were operating “under the assumption that the number of injured and death will rise”, the governor said, with at least one village buried by landslides triggered by the quake.

Cianjur police chief told Metro TV that 20 people had been evacuated from the district of Cugenang, most of whom had died, with residents reporting missing family members.

The area was hit by a landslide triggered by the quake that had blocked access to the area.

THIS IS WORSE BECAUSE OF THE LANDSLIDE. IN THIS AREA WERE EIGHT HOUSES, ALL OF WHICH WERE BURIED AND SWEPT AWAY

UNACCOUNTED

“At least six of my relatives are still unaccounted for, three adults and three children,” said Zainuddin, a resident of Cugenang.

“If it was just an earthquake only the houses would collapse, but this is worse because of the landslide. In this residential area there were eight houses, all of which were buried and swept away.”

Rescue efforts were complicated by electricity outages in some areas, and more than 100 aftershocks.

Straddling the so-called Ring of Fire, a highly seismically active zone where different plates on the earth’s crust meet, Indonesia has a history of devastating earthquakes.

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries as far away as Africa, killing 226,000 people.

Zainuddin Resident of Cugenang