162 Dead after Earthquake of 5.6 magnitude rocks Indonesia's Java island

Jakarta, Nov 21: An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck Indonesia's main island of Java on Monday, killing at least 162 and leaving several injured.

"The governor of the worst-hit province and a local official said the death toll from an earthquake on Indonesia's main island of Java on Monday had jumped to 162, according to AFP.

Herman Suherman, a government official from Cianjur, the town in West Java where the epicentre of the quake was located, told news channel MetroTV that up to 20 people had died at one hospital in the area, according to a report in Reuters.

Dozens of buildings, including houses, were damaged, locals told Associated Press. The depth of the earthquake was measured to be 10 kilometres, as per the US Geological Survey.

The locals took the injured to the hospital on trucks and two-wheelers. The doctors had a difficult time treating the victims as there was no power following the earthquake, the report adds.

#EarthquakeAlert | A magnitude 5.6 earthquake rattled the Indonesian capital Jakarta, reports @infoBMKG pic.twitter.com/lOXHpW6bBV

— DD News (@DDNewslive) November 21, 2022

The hospital needs more health workers as hundreds of people suffered injuries, Suherman said."We are currently handling people who are in an emergency state in this hospital. The ambulances keep on coming from the villages to the hospital," he further added.

"The quake felt so strong. My colleagues and I decided to get out of our office on the ninth floor with emergency stairs," AP quoted Vidi Primadhania, an employee in South Jakarta, as saying.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's meteorological agency has issued a warning to residents near the quake to stay outside their houses. "We call on people to stay outside the buildings for now as there might be potential aftershocks," the head of Indonesia's meteorological agency, Dwikorita Karnawati, told reporters.

Although earthquakes frequently hit the archipelago nation, it is quite uncommon for them to be felt in Jakarta.

may everyone in #cianjur stay safe#Gempa #earthquake pic.twitter.com/is2rM4EHRX

— Yoongi-chi 누나 (@vhee3010) November 21, 2022

It may be recalled that a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province in February.

Also, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province in January 2021.

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