Search for survivors as death toll soars

• 23-Nov-2022
• 198

Officials put the death toll at 268, many of them children, with 151 still missing and more than 1,000 injured. Damaged roads and the vast size of the affected area are making it difficult to locate and help victims. Aprizal Mulyadi was at school when the quake hit, and was trapped after "the room collapsed". The 14-year-old said his "legs were buried under the rubble", but he was pulled to safety by his friend Zulfikar, who later died after himself becoming trapped. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said that 22,000 houses had been damaged, and that more than 58,000 people had taken shelter in several locations in the region. The 5.6 magnitude quake struck a mountainous region on Monday, causing landslides that buried entire villages near the West Java town of Cianjur. Victims were crushed or trapped after walls and roofs caved in. "It all happened so fast," Aprizal told AFP news agency.A representative of the National Search and Rescue Agency also confirmed that many of the dead were young people. "Most of the casualties are children because at 1pm, they were still at school," said Henri Alfiandi.