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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Lydia Chantler-Hicks

Video shows moment boy, 5, is pulled from rubble alive two days after deadly Indonesia earthquake

Footage shows the moment a five-year-old boy was pulled to safety after being trapped for two days beneath rubble, following a devastating earthquake in Indonesia.

Monday’s 5.6-magnitude quake killed at least 271 people, while dozens remained missing on Wednesday.

Young survivor Azka was conscious as he was freed from a collapsed building by rescuers, in a moving video circulated by a local fire department.

A rescue worker can be seen carrying the youngster swiftly safety, where he is given a carton of juice as others stroke his head and check him for signs of injury.

Azka survived his terrifying ordeal without injury (damkarbogorkab/Instagram)

“(Azka) is fine now, not wounded. The doctor said he’s only weak because he’s hungry,” said relative Salman Alfarisi, 22, while holding the little boy’s hand at a makeshift tent in a hospital car park.

“He wants to go home now. He’s been asking for his mother while sleeping,” he said, adding that Azka’s mother had tragically died.

The quake caused extensive damage in the town of Cianjur, in mountains about 75 km (45 miles) south of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.

Driving rain and the danger of landslides disrupted work of rescue workers searching for survivors on Wednesday.

People inspect the ruins of their houses badly damaged in Monday's earthquake in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia (AP)

Recovery efforts focused on Cugenang, one of the worst-hit districts, where at least one village is believed to have been buried under a landslide.

Helicopters were due to drop food and water to two villages that could not be reached by road, said Henri Alfiandi, chief of the search and rescue agency.

He said the chances of anyone trapped in rubble surviving three days after the quake were increasingly slim but the danger of aftershocks triggering more landslides down rain-soaked slopes had delayed his teams.

At a Cianjur hospital, patients were being treated outside in tents due to the fear of aftershocks, a member of staff said.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said there was an urgent need for extra help for patients in quake-damaged hospitals.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone nations, regularly recording strong earthquakes offshore where fault lines run. But Monday’s quake was so deadly because it struck a densely populated area at a shallow depth of just 10 km (6 miles).

Poor building standards led to many deaths, officials said.

President Joko Widodo called for earthquake-proof housing to be included in reconstruction efforts when he visited the disaster zone on Tuesday.

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