At a press briefing after the quake, Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) head Dwikorita Karnawati said the earthquake’s epicenter was located 10 kilometers below Sukalarang district in Sukabumi regency, West Java.

While the epicenter was in Sukabumi, most of the casualties have been reported in the neighboring Cianjur regency.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported on Monday night that at least 62 lives had been lost to the quake and that 79 people were severely injured across the regency. The deaths and injuries were centered in the villages of Rancagoong, Limbangansari and Cugenang.

Twenty five people were also reportedly still trapped under rubble in Cijedil village, and 5,839 people had sought shelter at evacuation points.

Authorities also reported a power outage in Cianjur at one point, which hampered communication in the area.

"So many buildings crumbled and shattered," Java Governor Ridwan Kamil told reporters, as quoted by Reuters. "There are residents trapped in isolated places [...] so we are under the assumption that the number of the injured and deaths will rise with time."

The impacts of the earthquake in Sukabumi city, located some 10 km away from the Sukalarang epicenter, were less severe than those in Cianjur, said Atep Maulana, a local Red Cross official.

“There are several damaged buildings, but there are no reports of any fatalities yet," he said.

BNPB and BMKG officials from Jakarta will travel to Cianjur on Tuesday to assist with relief efforts. The government will provide Rp 500 million (US$31,791) worth of food and other emergency supplies and allocate Rp 1 billion to help the Cianjur administration set up disaster relief posts, according to Suharyanto.

Continuing caution

As of Monday night, the BMKG had reported 57 aftershocks.

The agency has also cautioned residents to stay away from any unstable buildings, as more aftershocks are expected.

Sukabumi and Cianjur are located over active tectonic plates that have created multiple shallow earthquakes in the past decades, according to BMKG earthquake and tsunami mitigation division head Daryono. The 5.6-magnitude earthquake ranks among the strongest the region has experienced since BMKG began collecting tectonic data, he said.

Dwikorita, meanwhile, cautioned residents to stay alert to secondary hazards, including landslides and flash floods.

Tremors felt in Jakarta

The earthquake was also felt in Jakarta, more than 100 km away from the epicenter.

The BMKG reported that Jakarta, along with its satellite cities of South Tangerang and Depok, felt shocks at levels II and III of the Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) scale.

Annisa Nadia, a 26-year-old employee at a private company, said she noticed the light fixtures in the South Jakarta café where she was working begin to sway violently.

“I was on a conference call with my coworker […], and [I felt the quake] in the middle of the call, and we both began to panic,” she told The Jakarta Post.

But there were no reports of casualties or major damage in Jakarta, AFP reported.

In Karawang, West Java, which borders Greater Jakarta, 56-year-old private-sector worker Edward Danny said he rushed out of his office when the shaking began.

“I don’t normally feel earthquakes, but that one felt quite strong,” he told the Post.

The 5.6-magnitude Sukabumi quake is the latest in a string of earthquakes with a magnitude of greater than 5.0 that have occurred across the country this month alone.

According to BMKG records, a 5.5-magnitude earthquake was recorded in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, a day prior, while a stronger, 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Enggano Island in Bengkulu on Friday.

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