• A shallow earthquake struck Java.
• It killed scores and wounded hundreds.
• Monday’s magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred 10km deep.

A shallow earthquake struck Java, Indonesia’s major island, killing scores and wounding hundreds.

Monday’s magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred 10km deep and centered in Cianjur, West Java (6.2 miles). Jakarta citizens ran for cover.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency: 46 dead, 700 injured in earthquake. An Islamic boarding school, a hospital, and other public buildings were damaged.

Cianjur official Herman Suherman said residents were trapped in collapsing buildings.

Latest data shows 46 deaths. Multiple places had victims. Suherman estimated 700 injuries.

He stated doctors at Sayang hospital were unable to operate after the quake.

Cianjur is 75km southeast of Jakarta. Metro TV showed Cianjur buildings in ruins as inhabitants sheltered outside.

Suherman worried that outside villagers may be trapped.

This hospital is handling emergency patients. He continued, “Village ambulances keep coming to the hospital.”

Greater Jakarta felt the tremor. Some evacuated high-rises in the capital swayed.

“The tremor was powerful.” Vidi Primadhania, an employee in south Jakarta, claimed he and his coworkers left their ninth-floor office using the emergency stairs.

Muchlis felt “a big vibration” and his office building’s walls and ceiling were damaged.

“I was stunned.” Muchlis told Metro TV he feared another quake and said people fled their homes, collapsing and vomiting.

Dwikorita Karnawati, head of BMKG, recommended people to stay outdoors during aftershocks.

In the two hours after the quake, 25 aftershocks were recorded, and heavy rain could cause landslides.

Karnawati urged media to keep out of buildings because aftershocks are possible.

Jakarta rarely feels Indonesia’s periodic earthquakes.

The country of more than 270 million people is frequently hit by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis due to its location on the Pacific Basin’s “Ring of Fire.”

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake in West Sumatra province in February killed 25 and injured 460. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in West Sulawesi killed 100 and injured 6,500.

2004’s Indian Ocean quake and tsunami killed 230,000 people, mostly in Indonesia.

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