The death toll from Monday's 5.6-magnitude quake in the town of Cianjur has risen as the scale of the disaster unfolds, with 268 officially confirmed dead, up from about 160 a day before, and more than 150 missing.
As authorities prepared to bring in more heavy machinery to clear the landslides, video images showed people digging the earth with their bare hands and tools such as hoes, sticks and crowbars. Rescuers are desperate to reach those trapped as soon as possible, said Henri Alfiandi, the chief of the search and rescue agency, who warned that chances of survival start to fade three days after a quake.The mountainous terrain makes it difficult to deliver aid, forcing officials to trudge to the affected villages, said West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil.
But Monday's quake, followed by more than 160 aftershocks, was made more deadly because it struck a densely populated area at a shallow depth of just 10 km .President Joko Widodo called for earthquake-proof housing to be included in reconstruction efforts, during a visit on Tuesday to the town, about 75 km south of Jakarta, the capital.