At least 20 people were killed and 300 injured after an earthquake of 5.6 magnitudes struck Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday. The epicentre was located near the West Java town of Cianjur.
Buildings have reportedly been damaged after a shallow 5.6 magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia’s Java island. The earthquake rattled high-rises as far away as the capital Jakarta.
“According to the information we have received so far, nearly 20 people have died and at least 300 have been treated in this hospital alone”, Cianjur’s head of administration, Herman Suhaman, told Metro TV.
Some TV channels showed the roofs of several buildings in Cianjur collapsing. The country’s Meteorological Agency warned residents near the quake to beware of further tremors as a 5.6 magnitude quake hit the country and killed at least 20 people. The number of casualties is expected to rise.
“We are urging people to stay outside the buildings for the time being due to the possibility of aftershocks,” Dwikorita Karnawati, director general of the Indonesian Meteorological Agency, told reporters.
BMKG announced that 25 aftershocks were recorded in the two hours after the quake.
In the capital Jakarta, some people were evacuated from their offices in the central business district, while others reported buildings shaking and furniture moving.
Hundreds of people were waiting outside after the earthquake, including some wearing helmets to protect themselves from the debris.
Indonesia straddles the so-called ‘Pacific Ring of Fire’, a highly seismically active zone where various plates of the Earth’s crust meet and cause numerous earthquakes and volcanoes.
