Massive earthquake rocks Indonesia’s Java island; at least 46 dead

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An earthquake struck Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday, killing at least 46 people, damaging dozens of buildings and sending residents onto the streets of the capital for safety.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.6 quake was concentrated in the Cianjur region of West Java province at a depth of 6.2 miles.

“There are 46 dead and around 700 injured in the Cianjur regional hospital. Many were injured after being hit by collapsed buildings,” said Suharyanto, chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

AP

via REUTERS

Several landslides have been reported around Cianjur. Dozens of buildings were damaged, including an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities, the agency said.

Information on the extent of casualties and damage is still being collected, it said in a statement.

The earthquake was felt strongly in the Jakarta area. High-rise buildings in the capital swayed and some were evacuated.

“The quake felt so strong. My colleagues and I decided to exit our office on the ninth floor using the emergency stairs,” said Vidi Primadhania, a staffer in South Jakarta.

Earthquakes are common in the sprawling archipelagic nation, but it’s unusual for them to be felt in Jakarta.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis due to 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 in West Sulawesi province killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500.

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