An earthquake shook Indonesia's main Java island Monday afternoon, killing at least 162 people, local officials said.
Around 700 people were injured, National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto said.
"Many were hurt because they were hit by collapsed buildings," he added.
The death toll reached 162 Monday night, local media reported citing West Java Gov. Ridwan Kamil.
More than 5,300 people had been displaced, the Indonesian disaster mitigation agency said in a statement. It added that at least 25 people were still trapped under collapsed buildings.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck West Java at 1:21 p.m. local time (1:21 a.m. ET). It was centered in the Cianjur region at a depth of 6.2 miles — about 47 miles southeast of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
At least 25 aftershocks were recorded by the country's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency.
"There are residents trapped in isolated places ... so we are under the assumption that the number of injured and deaths will rise with time,” Kamil told reporters.
More than 2,200 homes were damaged in the Cianjur region, in addition to a boarding school, a hospital and several government buildings, the Indonesian disaster mitigation agency said. Hundreds of homes in nearby areas have also been damaged, it said, adding that several landslides were also reported around the epicenter.
Information was still being collected about the extent of the casualties and damage, the disaster agency said in an earlier statement. Injured residents were rushed to hospitals and were also seen receiving medical treatment in parking lots, according to initial photographs from the region.
The quake was felt strongly in the greater Jakarta area. Skyscrapers in the capital swayed and some were evacuated.
The Southeast Asian country of more than 270 million lies on the “Ring of Fire,” a string of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin, and is frequently shocked by earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
In February, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
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