In search of survivors after a strong earthquake that destroyed homes and other structures in a densely populated part of Indonesia's West Java province and left more than 100 dead, rescuers are searching through rubble on Tuesday.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Cianjur district of West Java around 1:21 p.m. local time on Monday at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). This caused buildings to fall as school lessons were in session.
According to the nation's National Disaster Management Agency, the death toll as of Tuesday stood at 103, with the majority of those killed being crushed beneath crumbling structures (BNPB). Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, had earlier claimed that more than 160 people had died; the cause of the disparity is still unknown.
Photos showed streets littered with bricks and metal scraps, and buildings reduced to rubble. According to the BNPB, hundreds more were displaced along with more than 700 injuries.
According to Kamil, who spoke to reporters on Monday, "the majority of those who died were children," and the death toll is likely to rise further. There were so many incidents at different Islamic schools.
According to humanitarian organization Save the Children, which claimed that more than 50 schools had been affected, the strong earthquakes pulled kids out of their classrooms.
The group quoted Mia Saharosa, a teacher at one of the impacted schools, as saying that the earthquake "was a shock to all of us."
Children cried and screamed in terror as we all gathered in the field, Saharosa recalled. They were worried about their families back home. We give each other hugs, support one another, and keep praying.
A government representative from Cianjur, Herman Suherman, told the media that several residents were trapped in the wreckage of collapsed buildings. On Metro TV's news broadcast, it looked like hundreds of wounded were receiving care in a hospital parking lot.
According to Reuters, television images showed people huddling outside of nearly completely demolished structures.
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, who visited the earthquake-affected districts on Tuesday, announced that the government would offer homeowners of severely damaged homes compensation of up to $3,200 each. Jokowi added that homes should be rebuilt as earthquake-resistant structures.
Unidentified resident Muchlis claimed to have experienced a "huge tremor" and damage to his office's walls and ceiling.
"I was astonished. I was concerned about another earthquake, he told Metro TV.
Due to the fact that 25 aftershocks were registered in the first two hours following the earthquake, Indonesia's agency of meteorology, the BMKG, issued a warning about the risk of landslides, particularly in the event of heavy rain.
He added that the situation is still chaotic and that some of the trapped people were not immediately accessible by rescuers.
The victims' basic needs are being met as government officials construct tents and shelters for them.
The "Ring of Fire," a region encircling the Pacific Ocean that frequently experiences earthquakes and volcanic activity, passes through Indonesia. It runs from Japan and Indonesia on one side of the Pacific to California and South America on the other, making it one of the seismically active zones on the world.
In 2004, a tsunami that struck 14 countries and killed 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline—more than half of them in Indonesia—was caused by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake that occurred off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra.
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