The death toll from an earthquake on the Indonesian island of Java has risen to at least 252, officials said Tuesday, after rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The greatest damage from the 5.6-magnitude earthquake Monday afternoon was in Cianjur, a city south of the country’s capital, Jakarta. Local officials announced the higher death toll in an Instagram post, up from 162 the night before. They said 31 people were still missing and hundreds had been injured.
Rescue efforts were aided Tuesday by improvements in power supplies and phone communications and the arrival of heavy equipment to help move the debris. Trucks from Jakarta also delivered food, tents, blankets and other supplies to people housed in temporary shelters.
Some people may be still trapped under the rubble, said Endra Atmawidjaja, a spokesperson for public works and housing.
“We are racing against time to rescue people,” he said.
President Joko Widodo visited survivors in Cianjur on Tuesday, promising to rebuild infrastructure and provide up to 50 million rupiah ($3,180) to each resident whose house was damaged.
“On behalf of myself and on behalf of the government, I would like to express my deep condolences to the victims and their families,” he said.
Indonesia’s location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, makes it prone to disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra province killed at least 25 people in February, while an earthquake the same size killed more than 100 people last year in the province of West Sulawesi.
More than 2,800 homes were damaged in the earthquake, according to the Cianjur government’s Instagram post.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
