Rescuers were on Tuesday desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings after an earthquake hit Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing at least 268 people and injuring hundreds more.
Diggers, lorries and other heavy equipment reached the hardest-hit city of Cianjur which was close to the epicentre of yesterday’s magnitude 5.6 quake.
In the village of Cijedil, northwest of Cianjur, the quake triggered a landslide that blocked streets and buried several houses, and there were reports that 25 people were still buried, said Henri Alfiandi, the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
“We are maximizing operations at several points where it is suspected that there are still casualties. Our team is also trying to reach remote areas,” he said. “For us, all victims are a priority, our goal is to find them and save lives by getting them evacuated as soon as possible and get medical help.”
With hospitals already overwhelmed, patients lay on stretchers and cots in tents set up outside, with intravenous drips in their arms as they awaited further treatment.
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.
Operations were focused on about a dozen locations in Cianjur, where people are still believed trapped, said Endra Atmawidjaja, the public works and housing spokesperson.
“We are racing against time to rescue people,” Mr Atmawidjaja said.
Lorries carrying food, tents, blankets and other supplies from Jakarta arrived today in temporary shelters. But thousands spent the night in the open fearing aftershocks.
“Buildings were completely flattened,” said Dwi Sarmadi, who works for an Islamic educational foundation in a neighboring district.
President Joko Widodo visited Cianjur today to reassure people of the government’s response in reaching those in need.
“On behalf of myself and on behalf of the government, I would like to express my deep condolences to the victims and their families in this Cianjur earthquake,” he said after visiting survivors in shelters on a football field.
He pledged to rebuild infrastructure, including the main bridge connecting Cianjur to other cities, and to provide the government assistance to victims.
The quake sent terrified residents fleeing into the streets, some covered in blood and debris.
One woman in Cianjur said her home started “shaking like it was dancing.”
“I was crying and immediately grabbed my husband and children,” said the woman, who gave her name only as Partinem. The house collapsed shortly after she escaped with her family.
“If I didn’t pull them out we might have also been victims,” she said, gazing over the pile of concrete and timber rubble.
In addition to those killed, authorities reported more than 1,000 people injured and at least 151 still missing.
* A powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake rattled the Solomon Islands on Tuesday afternoon, overturning tables and sending people racing for higher ground. Buildings were damaged but no tsunami warning was issued.
