Three days after a devastating earthquake on the Indonesian main island of Java, 40 people are still missing under rubble and masses of earth. At least 271 people were killed in the 5.6 magnitude tremor on Monday.
The epicenter was near the town of Cianjur, which also has the most deaths and damage. On Wednesday, a six-year-old was rescued from a collapsed house after 40 hours. The boy had miraculously survived for two days under rubble and rubble.
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo traveled to the disaster area again on Thursday and got an idea of the situation by looking at a collapsed kindergarten. “Rescuing the victims must be a priority,” he stressed. “I was told that 30 people are still missing in this area alone.”
No one died in the kindergarten in Cijedil because the children had already gone home at the time of the earthquake. However, the ruins of the building are a clear sign of the devastation caused by the tremors: only a slide and children’s carousels are left on the site, everything else is in ruins. According to civil protection, 37 percent of all victims are children under the age of 15.
Indonesia has around 270 million inhabitants, more than half of whom live on the densely populated main island of Java. The earthquake took place on land and at a relatively shallow depth of ten kilometers, which explains the large damage.
The island nation lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most geologically active zone on earth. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common there.
