Some have been pulled alive from a hulk of twisted metal and concrete in dramatic rescues in the town of Cianjur, West Java, including a 6-year-old boy who spent two days under the wreckage without food or water.

Officials said around 40 people were still missing and believed trapped, including a 7-year-old girl, as rescue efforts were delayed by hammering rains and aftershocks.

But the rescue of the young boy Azka, captured on video, gave relatives and rescuers a dash of optimism.

“Once we realized Azka was alive, everybody broke into tears, including me,” 28-year-old local volunteer Jeksen Kolibu told AFP on Thursday. “It was very moving, it felt like a miracle.”

In the worst-hit district of Cugenang on Thursday, scores of rescue workers drilled through big slabs of concrete and removed roof tiles at a destroyed house, where they believed a young girl was buried, as her distraught mother watched on.

Other rescuers used digging tools, hammers and their bare hands to clear the debris in hope of finding 7-year-old Cika.

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