46 dead, 700 injured,earthquake in Indonesia’s Java island

JAKARTA (AP) — A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian province of West Java on Monday, killing 46 people, the national disaster management agency said, as rescuers and authorities worked to determine the full extent of the earthquakes. damage.

The earthquake struck the ground in the city of Chianjur, some 75 kilometers southeast of the capital Jakarta, at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the meteorological and geophysical agency (BMKG) said, adding that it did not there was a possibility of a tsunami. .

The head of the disaster relief agency (BNPB) told a news conference that 46 people had been killed and up to 700 injured.

Herman Sucherman, a government official in Chianjur, told the media that some residents were trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The Metro TV news channel showed hundreds of victims being treated in a hospital parking lot.

According to the disaster relief agency, several houses and an Islamic boarding school were damaged, and electricity was cut in the area, causing communications to fail.

Metro TV footage showed some buildings in Chianjur reduced almost completely to rubble as residents crowded outside.

Mukhlis, who was in Chanjur when the quake struck, said he felt “a big tremor” and the walls and ceiling of his office were damaged.

“I was very shocked. I was afraid there would be another earthquake,” Mukhlis told Metro TV, adding that people ran from their houses in panic.

There were 25 aftershocks in the two hours after the quake, according to BMKG, adding that there is a risk of landslides, especially in case of heavy rain.

The quake was felt in Jakarta, with buildings shaking and furniture rattling, and some people leaving their offices in the central business district, according to Reuters witnesses.

Indonesia is located between the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of ​​great seismic activity where different plates of the earth’s crust come together, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that hit 14 countries and killed 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coast, more than half of them in Indonesia.