Earthquake kills dozens of people In Indonesia.

On Monday, a powerful earthquake on Indonesia’s main island killed at least 162 people and injured hundreds more. Residents were terrified and fled into the street, some covered in blood and debris.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil announced the latest death toll in the remote, rural area, saying that many of the dead were public school students who had finished their classes for the day and were taking extra lessons at Islamic schools when they collapsed.

Buildings collapsed, and residents and emergency personnel braced for the bad news.

Hospitals were overcrowded, and the death toll was expected to rise further. Because of the area’s remote, rural population, no estimates were immediately available, but many structures collapsed, and residents and emergency workers braced for the bad news.

Cianjur has a population of around 175,000 people and is part of a mountainous district with a population of over 2.5 million people.

Cianjur’s people are known for their piety, and they live mostly in one- and two-story towns, as well as smaller homes in the surrounding countryside.

The injured were treated on stretchers and blankets outside hospitals, on terraces, and in parking lots in the Cianjur region, about three hours drive from Java’s capital.

Children among the injured were given oxygen masks and IV lines. Some people were resuscitated.

According to National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari, 25 people were still buried in the debris in Cijedil village.

Several landslides shut down roads in the Cianjur district. A hospital was among the dozens of buildings damaged, according to the agency. There were reports of power outages.

At least 25 aftershocks were recorded by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency.

Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” which causes frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.

It is one of the world’s most seismically active zones, stretching from Japan and Indonesia on one side of the Pacific to California and South America on the other.

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, with more than half of them in Indonesia.

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck West Sumatra province in February, killing at least 25 people and injuring over 460 others.

In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in West Sulawesi province killed over 100 people and injured nearly 6,500.

Government officials are constructing tents and shelters for the victims while also meeting their basic needs.