At least 46 people were killed and about 700 others were injured in Indonesia after a 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook the western Java region on Monday afternoon.
Several homes, stores and public buildings were damaged, and landslides were reported in some parts of Cianjur regency, the epicenter of the roughly 7-second earthquake, authorities said.
Tremors were felt in nearby cities, including the capital Jakarta, some 100 kilometers away from the epicenter, where office workers evacuated buildings.
Indonesia’s 18,000 islands sit along the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire” zone of active volcanoes and tectonic faults, making them prone to earthquakes. The tremor hit the small regency at 1:21 p.m. Jakarta time at a depth of 10 kilometers. It didn’t generate a tsunami.
Local news outlets reported some interregional roads have been cut off due to damages and landslides caused by the earthquake, hindering search and rescue efforts in some areas. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency warned of potential aftershocks.
Cianjur is mainly a residential and agricultural area in West Java, the country’s largest province by population with nearly 50 million residents, many of whom commute to Jakarta for work. The quake knocked out the electricity for 300,000 users in Cianjur, with about one-fifth of them having regained power as of 5 p.m. local time.
