LAST UPDATE | 21 Nov 2022

INDONESIAN OFFICIALS HAVE said that the death toll from a magnitude 5.6 earthquake has risen to 162, with buildings and walls being toppled in the densely populated island of Java.

“I regret to inform that 162 are dead,” West Java governor Ridwan Kamil said in a video seen by AFP.

Emergency workers treated the injured on stretchers and blankets outside main hospitals, on terraces and in car parks after the strong and shallow earthquake.

Many casualties included children, some of whom were resuscitated while others were given oxygen masks.

Rescuers search for survivors at the ruins of houses damaged by an earthquake in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia AP AP

Residents, some crying with children in their arms, fled damaged homes after the quake shook the Cianjur region in West Java province at a depth of 6.2 miles. The tremor also caused panic in the greater Jakarta area, where high-rises swayed with many being evacuated.

Rescue teams and civilians in Cianjur were looking for others who may have been buried in the debris of collapsed brick houses. The quake was powerful enough to bring down walls, chunks of concrete and roof tiles, some of which landed inside bedrooms.

Herman Suherman, the head of Cianjur Regency, said the death toll reached 56 as of Monday evening.

Around 700 were injured, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto said.

Several landslides were reported around Cianjur. Among the dozens of buildings that were damaged was an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities, the agency said.

Most of the victims and survivors were taken to the government hospital in Cianjur, where emergency tents were erected and workers treated the injured.

Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency recorded at least 25 aftershocks.

Earthquakes occur frequently across the sprawling archipelago nation, but it is uncommon for them to be felt in Jakarta.

People injured during an earthquake receive medical treatment AP AP

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.

In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

A powerful Indian Ocean quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.

Additional reporting by AFP