Rescue workers on the Indonesian island of Java are still searching for survivors of yesterday’s earthquake, which left at least 162 people dead. Excavators and dump trucks worked all night, including cleaning the roads.

The death toll is expected to rise further. There are many seriously injured people in the overcrowded hospitals. There are also many missing persons, for example, in the city of Cianjur. And near that place was the epicenter of magnitude 5.6 yesterday morning. Emergency services believe many of the victims may still be under the rubble.

An eyewitness said that all the houses in his neighborhood were swept away:

Meanwhile, local authorities are slowly gaining insight into the damage. More than 2,300 buildings are reported to have been damaged, many of which are now uninhabitable. In the village of Segedil, northwest of Cianjur, the earthquake triggered a landslide that buried many houses.

Much of the infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, was also damaged. This makes it difficult for rescuers to reach the affected places, said the head of the Indonesian Rescue Service, Henri Alviandi, at a press conference.

Alfiande also said that many children died in the collapsed buildings. “Because they were still in school during the earthquake.”

Indonesia has a population of about 270 million, of which more than half live in Java. An earthquake was felt yesterday in the capital, Jakarta, 75 km away. It seems that the damage in that city isn’t too bad.