46 confirmed killed, 700 injured, as 5.6 magnitude earthquake rocks Indonesia

At least 46 people have been confirmed dead with 700 injured as a 5.6 magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday, also damaging dozens of buildings and sending residents into the capital’s streets for safety, Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency Chief, Suharyanto said in a statement.

“There are 46 dead people at the Cianjur regional hospital and around 700 injured people. Many were hurt because they were hit by collapsed buildings,” Suharyanto said in the statement.

The agency said several landslides were reported around Cianjur where dozens of buildings were damaged, including an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities.

Read also:26 injured as 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits Philippines

Information is still being collected about the extent of casualties and damage but preliminary reports say the quake was felt strongly in the greater Jakarta area while high rises in the capital swayed and some were evacuated, according to local media.

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

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