At least 46 people have been killed and 700 injured after an earthquake shook Indonesia’s main island of Java.
Dozens of buildings were damaged in the natural disaster, sending residents into the streets of the capital Jakarta for safety.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.6 quake was centred in the Cianjur region in West Java province at a depth of 6.2 miles.
Herman Suherman, a government official in Cianjur, confirmed the death toll and told local media some residents were still trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings.
‘There are 46 dead people at the Cianjur regional hospital and around 700 injured people,’ he said.
‘Many were hurt because they were hit by collapsed buildings.’
News channel Metro TV showed what appeared to be hundreds of victims being treated in a hospital parking lot.
‘This is from one hospital, there are four hospitals in Cianjur,’ Mr Suherman added, and warned the death and injury toll could still rise further.
Information is still being collected about the extent of casualties and damage.
Mr Suherman confirmed dozens of buildings had been damaged by the quake and subsequent landslides, including an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities.
Adam – spokesperson for the local administration in Cianjur town, 35 miles south-east of Jakarta – told the AFP news agency dozens of people were dead.
‘There have been dozens of people killed. Hundreds, even maybe thousands of houses are damaged. So far 44 people have died,’ said Adam, who like many Indonesians uses just one name.
Local resident Muchlis, who was in Cianjur when the quake hit, said he felt ‘a huge tremor’ and the walls and ceiling of his office were damaged.
‘I was very shocked. I worried there would be another quake,’ Muchlis told Metro TV, adding that people ran out of their houses in panic.
In the two hours after the quake 25 aftershocks were recorded, government sources said, adding there was still an additional danger of landslides especially in the event of heavy rain.
The quake was felt in Jakarta – shaking buildings and rattling furniture – and some people were seen leaving their offices in the central business district.
Indonesia straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly seismically active zone where different plates on the earth’s crust meet, causing earthquakes and volcanoes.
A 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia in 2004 triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline including more than half of them in Indonesia.
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