Death toll from Indonesia's earthquake rises to 252

The death toll from an earthquake that hit Indonesia's Cianjur town in western Java has risen to 252, the local government said in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

It also said 31 people are still missing and 377 were injured, while the number of people displaced has reached 7,060.

Adam, spokesman for the local administration in Cianjur town, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, confirmed the toll to AFP.

Due to miscounting, officials offered wildly fluctuating death tolls after an Indonesian stadium disaster last month.

The afternoon quake was centred in the Cianjur region and local authorities earlier said as many as 700 had been wounded, warning the death toll could rise further.

"Because there are still a lot of people trapped on the scene, we assume injuries and fatalities will increase over time," an official said as ambulance sirens blared in the background.

Agus Azhari, 19, was with his elderly mother in the family home when their living room was destroyed within seconds, parts of the walls and roof collapsing around them.

"I pulled my mother's hand, and we ran outside," he said. "I heard people screaming for help from all around me," Azhari told AFP.

The majority of deaths were counted in one hospital, the head of Cianjur's local administration Herman Suherman said, with most of the victims killed in the ruins of collapsed buildings.

He told Indonesian media the town's Sayang hospital had no power after the quake, leaving doctors unable to operate on victims immediately.

More health workers were urgently needed due to the overwhelming number of patients, he said.

Locals rushed victims to the hospital in pickup trucks and on motorbikes, according to footage obtained by AFP

ALSO READ:

• UAE residents report feeling tremors as 5.3-magnitude quake hits Iran

• Earthquake of magnitude 6.7 strikes Indonesia's Sumatra region

• World
• Asia