Indonesian rescuers focus on landslide as quake toll rises
Cianjur (AP): On the fourth day of an increasingly urgent search, Indonesian rescuers narrowed their work on Thursday to a landslide where dozens are believed trapped after an earthquake that killed at least 271 people, more than a third of them children.
Many of the more than 1,000 rescue personnel are using backhoe loaders, sniffer dogs and life detectors, as well as jackhammers and bare hands to speed up the search in the worst-hit area of Cijendil village, where a landslide, set off by Monday's quake, left tons of debris including mud, rocks and trees.
Around 40 victims are believed still stuck in the soil and rubble of collapsed buildings in Cugenang sub-district.
Rescuers are also working on other impacted areas to make sure there are no more victims that need to be evacuated, said Henri Alfiandi, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.
"We hope all victims can be found soon," Alfiandi said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, searchers rescued a 6-year-old boy who was trapped for two days under the rubble of his collapsed house.
More than 2,000 people were injured in the quake that displaced at least 61,000 people to evacuation centers and other shelters after at least 56,000 houses were damaged. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency has said 171 public facilities were destroyed, including 31 schools.
Suharyanto, chief of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, said 100 of the 271 confirmed deaths were children.
Rescue efforts had been suspended temporarily on Wednesday as heavy monsoon rains fell.
The 5.6 magnitude of Monday's earthquake would not typically be expected to cause serious damage.
But the quake was shallow and shook a densely populated area that lacks earthquake-resistant infrastructure. Weak aftershocks continued until Thursday morning.
More than 2.5 million people live in mountainous Cianjur district, including about 175,000 in its main town, which has the same name.
President Joko Widodo visited Cianjur on Tuesday and pledged to rebuild its infrastructure and provide assistance of up to 50 million rupiah (USD 3,180) to each resident whose house was damaged.
Indonesia is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin known as the "Ring of Fire."
VIDEO: Rescuers in the town of Cianjur, near the epicentre of a 5.6 magnitude quake in Indonesia, search for survivors in the rubble left after the country's deadliest tremors since 2018. pic.twitter.com/UgzQEjjWON
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 23, 2022
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8 dead, dozens wounded in Russian strike on Ukraine's Odesa port
Kyiv (AP): Eight people were killed and 27 wounded in a Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa, southern Ukraine, late on Friday, Ukraine's Emergency Service said on Saturday morning.
Some of the wounded were on a bus at the epicentre of the overnight strike, the service said in a Telegram post. Trucks caught fire in the parking lot, and cars were also damaged.
The port was struck with ballistic missiles, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the Odesa region.
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Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces hit a Russian warship and other facilities with drones, Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on Saturday.
The nighttime attack on Friday hit the Russian warship “Okhotnik,” according to the statement posted to the Telegram messaging app.
The ship was patrolling in the Caspian Sea near an oil and gas production platform. The extent of the damage is still being clarified, the statement added.
A drilling platform at the Filanovsky oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea was also hit. The facility is operated by Russian oil giant Lukoil. Ukrainian drones also struck a radar system in the Krasnosilske area of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
