After two earthquakes in the Asia-Pacific region, rescue workers still have no idea of ​​the full extent of the destruction.

In Indonesia, where a 5.6 magnitude earthquake caused severe shaking around noon on Monday, there was no certainty on Tuesday about the number of victims.

The provincial government of West Java spoke of 162 dead and more than 300 injured, but other authorities gave lower numbers.

Till Fähnders

Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.

  • Follow I follow

Among the dead were many children who were sitting in their classrooms at the time and were unable to flee in time, provincial governor Ridwan Kamil told the local press.

Most of the injured suffered fractures and injuries from falling sharp objects.

He expects the number of victims to increase as people are still missing.

"It was a moderate earthquake but very destructive," the governor said.

2345 houses were broken.

13,000 people are on the run.

Major earthquake in the Solomon Islands

A severe earthquake also hit the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific on Tuesday.

With a magnitude of 7.0, it was significantly more violent than the Indonesian quake and just ten kilometers deep, just as shallow.

However, the epicenter was in the ocean not far from the coast southwest of the capital Honiara.

The authorities warned of a tsunami, but declared the danger over after a while.

A strong aftershock with a magnitude of 6.0 was measured just 30 minutes after the first tremor.

The effects of the quake were initially unclear, since the telephone connections were partially interrupted.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister told Australian media that there had been no major damage to buildings in the center of the capital.

As the government in Canberra announced,

In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo promised quick help to the victims of the earthquake during a visit to the disaster area.

The tremors were felt in the capital, Jakarta.

The epicenter was around 100 kilometers from Jakarta in the city of Cianjur.

“It is classified as a shallow earthquake with a depth of less than ten kilometers.

It doesn't need a magnitude 7 or more to wreak havoc," said Daryono, head of the Earthquake and Tsunami Center at the BMKG Agency for Meteorology and Geophysics.

Relatively shallow earthquakes usually cause stronger vibrations and thus cause more damage.

In the Indonesian disaster area, on Tuesday, rescue workers were still using excavators to search through masses of mud under which several people had been buried after a landslide.