The death toll from an earthquake on Indonesia’s main island of Java jumped to 268 on Tuesday, as rescuers searched for survivors in the rubble and relatives started to bury their loved ones.
As body bags emerged from crumpled buildings in Indonesia’s most populous province, West Java, rescue efforts turned to any survivors still under debris in areas made hard to reach by the mass of obstacles thrown onto the roads by the quake.
The epicenter of the shallow 5.6-magnitude quake on Monday was near the town of Cianjur where most of the victims were killed, hundreds were injured and dozens feared trapped as buildings collapsed and landslides were triggered.
The death toll jumped dramatically again later on Tuesday from 162 to 268, Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, told a press conference.
At least 151 people remain missing and more than 1,000 have been injured, said the official, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
“The focus is still on the search and evacuation of victims. That’s the priority,” he said. “When the emergency response ends, hopefully everyone has been found.”
Many of those killed were children, according to the head of Indonesia’s national rescue agency Basarnas.
“They were at school, at 1 pm, they were still studying,” Henri Alfiandi told a press conference.
Some of those dead were students at an Islamic boarding school, while others were killed in their homes when roofs and walls caved in on them.
The search operation on Tuesday was made more challenging because of severed road links and temporary power outages in parts of the largely rural, mountainous region.
Those who survived camped outside in near-total darkness surrounded by fallen debris, shattered glass and chunks of concrete.
Doctors treated patients outdoors at makeshift wards after the quake, which was felt as far away as the capital Jakarta.