At least 162 people have been reported dead and hundreds more injured after an earthquake on the island of Java in Indonesia.
More heavy equipment reached the hardest-hit city of Cianjur in the country’s most densely populated province of West Java, where the magnitude 5.6 land-based quake struck Monday afternoon. Terrified residents fled into the street, some covered in blood and debris.
Some 326 people have also been injured, with varying degrees of severity, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said at a news conference.
Damaged roads and bridges, power blackouts and lack of heavy equipment previously hampered Indonesia’s rescuers after the quake set off a landslide that blocked streets and buried several houses and motorists.
The quake hit the Cianjur region in West Java on Monday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
Many of the dead were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons at Islamic schools when the buildings collapsed, Kamil said as he announced the latest death toll in the remote, rural area.
The earthquake has displaced 13,782 people – all of whom will be accommodated across 14 refugee camp sites. At least 2,345 homes have been damaged.
Hospitals were overwhelmed by injured people, and the toll was expected to rise. No estimates were immediately available because of the area’s far-flung, rural population, but many structures collapsed, and residents and emergency workers braced for grim news.
Four schools and 52 houses collapsed or were badly damaged, according to the local office of the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB). A mosque and a hospital were also damaged, according to the agency.
