Panic and Grief in Indonesia, as Earthquake leaves over 160 Dead
"I did not know where to go, but at least I am alive."
TNI Bureau: Hours after an earthquake hit Indonesia with a magnitude of 5.6, terrified locals flooded the streets and hospitals. In Indonesia, there have been at least 162 fatalities and 700 injuries. Cianjur in West Java, which is located about 75 kilometres from Jakarta, was the epicenter of the earthquake.
Since there were not enough rooms in the town’s three hospitals to accommodate the 700 injuries, emergency personnel rushed to treat victims in every open area they could find.
In a village close to Cianjur, Oman, 55, was preparing fried rice when his house began to tremble. “I was abruptly buried beneath it. In the debris, I was helpless. At the moment, my wife was outdoors, ” he added.
He was trapped in the ruins by his feet, legs, and hands, but his son came to free him. He came out with a broken leg and a bloody body.
Oman said, “I did not know where to go, but at least I am alive.”
Support Independent Journalism? Keep us live.
After the earthquake, which was felt as far away as Jakarta, left hospitals in the West Java town of Cianjur without power for several hours, doctors treated patients outside.
As the rescue effort continued throughout the night, 25 individuals, according to Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, were still buried beneath the wreckage.
The so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” where various plates of the Earth’s crust collide and produce a great deal of earthquakes and volcanoes, crosses Indonesia.
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.
According to video obtained by AFP, locals transported patients to the hospital in pickup trucks and on motorcycles.
As locals stretched a tarpaulin over the road for the dead, they were positioned in front of the facility. An AFP reporter who was there at the site reported that green tents had been set up outside of Cimacan hospital, another facility, for impromptu treatment.
Parents searched for their missing children as the victims arrived covered in blood.
Comments are closed.