More than 250 people have died as a result of the earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale which hit the town of Cianjur in the western part of the island of Java on Monday (November 21st). a hundred kilometers south of Jakarta. According to a provisional report communicated Tuesday by the local authorities, 31 people are still missing and the earthquake would have displaced some 7,000 people.
The shock occurred at 1:21 p.m., 10 kilometers deep, under a village further south, Sukalarang, where the damage was however less significant than in Cianjur and did not cause any injuries. It was felt in the Indonesian capital, but no casualties or significant damage was observed there. The hilly region of Cianjur has been regularly affected by earthquakes in the past: four earthquakes above 6.5 on the Richter scale have occurred within a radius of 250 kilometers around Cianjur since 2007.
According to Indonesia’s national disaster management agency, more than 2,500 homes are considered destroyed. Four schools are badly damaged, as well as a mosque. Some of the victims were students of Islamic boarding schools whose roof gave way.
Part of the roads blocked
Cianjur has 170,000 inhabitants. As often in Indonesia, the inhabitants live in houses which spread out around an urban center equipped with small buildings. Photos circulating on social media show a half-collapsed supermarket, as well as tangles of beams and bricks covering cars, houses with crumbling walls and gutted roofs. Rescuers were on the job Tuesday morning to search for victims amid several landslides, which cut roads.
The earthquake also blocked part of the roads leading to more remote rural areas, making it difficult at first to transport excavators and first aid equipment. Tents and blankets arrived Tuesday morning from Jakarta. The public electricity company, PLN, which had to repair damaged pylons and lines, said on Tuesday morning that power had returned to 89% of homes in Cianjur, and that the electricity supply of the four main hospitals was now “normal”. “.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo is due to visit the site of the earthquake on Tuesday, according to Metro TV. French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Indonesia a few days earlier with the heads of state of the world’s 20 largest economies during the G20 in Bali from November 14 to 16, tweeted Monday morning a “moved thoughts for all the victims”affirming the solidarity of France.
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