ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday offered condolence to the Indonesian President on the loss of precious lives and assets due to an earthquake in West Java, Indonesia.

In a telephone conversation held with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the prime minister observed that the people of Pakistan could feel the anguish of their Indonesian brothers and sister, having recently suffered immensely due to natural calamities.

He thanked the Indonesian President for the assistance provided to the flood victims in Pakistan, and offered to extend Pakistan’s support for relief efforts underway in Indonesia.

The death toll from an earthquake that hit Indonesia’s island of Java this week has risen to 321 as rescuers found more bodies, the country’s national disaster mitigation agency said.

The shallow 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit the West Java town of Cianjur last Monday, where most of the victims were killed as buildings collapsed or landslides were triggered. The quake damaged more than 62,000 houses and forced more than 73,000 people to evacuate to at least 325 shelters.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide.

The tremor was the deadliest in the archipelago nation since a 2018 quake and the resulting tsunami killed more than 4,000 people on the island of Sulawesi.

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