Death toll from Indonesia's earthquake rises to 252

JAKARTA: The death toll from an earthquake that hit Indonesia’s Cianjur town in western Java has risen to 252, the local government said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

It also said 31 people are still missing and 377 were injured, while the number of people displaced has reached 7,060.

Authorities said many children killed when their schools collapsed are among the 252 dead from an earthquake that devastated a town on Indonesia’s main island of Java, officials said on Tuesday, as rescuers raced to reach people trapped in rubble.

Hundreds of people were injured in the Monday quake and officials warned the death toll was likely to rise.

The shallow 5.6-magnitude quake struck in mountains in Indonesia’s most populous province of West Java, causing significant damage to the town of Cianjur and burying at least one village under a landslide.

Landslides and rough terrain were hampering rescue efforts, said Henri Alfiandi, head of National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

“The challenge is the affected area is spread out … On top of that, the roads in these villages are damaged,” Alfiandi told a news conference, adding that more than 13,000 people had been evacuated.

“Most of the casualties are children, because at 1 p.m. they were still at school,” he said, referring to the time the quake hit.

Many of the fatalities resulted from people trapped under collapsed buildings, officials said.

President Joko Widodo flew in to Cianjur on Tuesday to encourage rescuers.

“My instruction is to prioritise evacuating victims that are still trapped under rubble,” said the president, who is known as Jokowi.

He offered his condolences to the victims and pledged emergency government support. Reconstruction should include earthquake-proof housing, he said.