At least 163 people have been confirmed dead after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Java Island on Monday, collapsing buildings and living scores injured.
A country of more than 270 million people, Indonesia often experiences earthquakes, volcanic activity and ocean waves called tsunamis and this is because it sits within the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” a collection of volcanoes and fault lines.
For instance, In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia set off a huge tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.
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Indonesian officials were quoted as saying that the quake was centred near the town of Cianjur in West Java which is about 75 kilometres southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
According to reports, the earthquake caused numerous structures to fall around Cianjur, trapping at least 25 people under collapsed buildings. It also left more than 2,200 homes damaged and more than 5,300 people had become displaced.
The head of Cianjur’s government, Herman Suherman, had reported that there were power outages in the area and that the power cuts were affecting some communication efforts. He added that a landslide had blocked evacuations in one area.
While hundreds of victims were treated on the grounds of the main government hospital in Cianjur, an Islamic school, a hospital and other public buildings were destroyed.
Indonesia’s weather and geophysics agency said that the quake struck at a comparably shallow depth of 10 kilometres while officials were still working to examine the full level of damage.
Vidi Primadhania, who was working in Jakarta when the quake struck said that it felt so strong, adding that he and his colleagues decided to get out of the office on the ninth floor using the emergency stairs.
Story was adapted from VOA.
