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Quake kills at least 162; injures hundreds

Published:Tuesday | November 22, 2022 | 12:08 AM
Earthquake survivors are treated outside of a hospital in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, on Monday. An earthquake shook Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday damaging dozens of buildings and sending residents into the capital’s streets for safety.
Kholid
Earthquake survivors are treated outside of a hospital in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia, on Monday. An earthquake shook Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday damaging dozens of buildings and sending residents into the capital’s streets for safety.

CIANJUR (AP):

A powerful earthquake killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds on Indonesia’s main island on Monday. Terrified residents fled into the streets, some covered in blood and debris.

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 they collapsed, West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said as he announced the latest death toll in the remote, rural area.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by injured people, and the toll was expected to rise further. 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.

“Buildings were completely flattened,” said Dwi Sarmadi, who works for an Islamic educational foundation in a neighbouring district.

Roughly 175,000 people live in the town of Cianjur, part of a mountainous district of the same name with more than 2.5 million people. Known for their piety, the people of Cianjur live mostly in towns of one- and two-storey buildings and in smaller homes in the surrounding countryside.

Kamil said that more than 13,000 people whose homes were heavily damaged were taken to evacuation centres.

Emergency workers treated the injured on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on terraces and in parking lots in the Cianjur region, about three hours drive from the capital, Java. The injured, including children, were given oxygen masks and IV lines. Some were resuscitated.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Cianjur regional hospital building, waiting for treatment.

“I was working inside my office building. The building was not damaged but, as the quake shook very strongly, many things fell. My leg was hit by heavy stuff,” Sarmadi said.

Sarmadi was waiting near a tent outside the hospital after some overwhelmed clinics were unable to see him. Many people were coming in worse shape.

“I saw my friends running to escape from the building, butut it was too late to get out and I was hit by the wall.”

“I really hope they can handle me soon,” he said.