22 November 2022 10:13 am
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.
“I regret to inform that 162 are dead,” West Java governor Ridwan Kamil said in a video seen by AFP. Adam, the spokesman for the local administration in Cianjur town in West Java, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, confirmed the toll to AFP.
Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency, BNPB, still lists the toll at 62. Due to miscounting, officials offered wildly fluctuating death tolls after an Indonesian stadium disaster last month.
Doctors treated patients outdoors after the quake, which was felt as far away as the capital Jakarta, left hospitals in the West Java town of Cianjur without power for several hours.
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said 25 people remained trapped under the rubble as the rescue mission stretched into the night.
The agency increased the death toll from 56 and said more than 2,000 houses were damaged and more than 5,000 people were taken to evacuation centres.
“You can see it yourself, some got their heads, feet sewn outdoors. Some got stressed and started crying,” Kamil told a news conference broadcast on Kompas TV.
Kamil said power had been partially restored by the evening, without specifying if that meant by generators or connection to a power grid.
Hindustan Times/
AFP, 21 Nov, 2022