Java, 21st November 2022: A 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s West Java province on Monday, killing 46 people and injuring more than 700. The US Geological Survey said the 5.6-magnitude quake was centred in the Cianjur region of West Java province at a depth of 10 kilometres (6.2 miles).

Herman Suhrman, a government official in Cianjur, the city in West Java where the quake was the epicenter, told news channel MetroTV that 44 people had died and more than 300 were injured in a hospital in the area. Many buildings have been damaged by the earthquake. People have been asked to take to the streets for safety.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said dozens of buildings were damaged, including an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities. Information about casualties and damage is still being gathered.

The tremors of the earthquake were felt in the Greater Jakarta area. High-rises in the capital were washed away, and some were evacuated. Vidi Primadhania, a worker in South Jakarta, said, “The earthquake felt so strong. My colleagues and I decided to exit our office on the ninth floor using the emergency stairs.”

Earthquakes are frequent in Indonesia, but it is unusual to feel them in Jakarta. The country of more than 270 million people is frequently affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. 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 magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck West Sulawesi province, killing over 100 people and injuring nearly 6,500. In 2004 a powerful Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia.