A joint search team has retrieved another dead body from the landslide debris that hit a section of a highway connecting Cianjur and Bogor regencies following Monday’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake.
joint search team has retrieved another dead body from the debris from a landslide that hit a section of a highway connecting Cianjur and Bogor regencies following Monday’s 5.6-magnitude earthquake.
Arif Yulianto, one of the team members, said they had found a total of 12 bodies in the debris in Cugenang, Cianjur, West Java, since Monday afternoon.
“We are continuing our work to search for victims in this area,” Arif told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. The team is composed of police, military and National Search and Rescue (Basarnas) personnel.
The team deployed search dogs and heavy machinery to aid the search, which has so far recovered a public minivan and two trucks.
Workers from the Public Works and Housing Ministry had previously managed to reconnect severed sections along the Cianjur-Cipanas road cut off by debris from the landslides that followed the earthquake.
At least 268 people were killed in the disaster with more than 100 people missing.
More than 58,300 people have been evacuated and at least 12,600 houses are heavily damaged, while 6,500 and 2,000 other houses suffered moderate and mild damage, respectively, authorities said.
The Cianjur administration declared on Tuesday a state of emergency for the next 30 days.
Authorities have pointed to the fact that Monday’s earthquake was a shallow land-based crustal quake, with an epicenter just 10 kilometers below the surface in neighboring regency Sukabumi’s Sukalarang district, as a reason for the hefty damage toll.
The mountainous Sukabumi and Cianjur regions are located over active tectonic plates. A total of 145 aftershocks – ranging in magnitude from 1.2 to 4.2 – have been recorded since Monday, with officials warning more landslides could follow in coming weeks. (dre)
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