UAE leaders express condolences to Indonesia’s President over the earthquake victims

His  Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan sent his sympathies to the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, for the victims of the earthquake that devastated the island of Java, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. The message was sent by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

In his greeting, President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed wished everyone of the injured a fast recovery and expressed his hope that they would soon be back to normal.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, sent a similar message to President Widodo.

Indonesia’s Deadly Earthquake

Officials have cautioned that the death toll could grow. At least 162 people were killed and hundreds were injured after an earthquake struck a village in West Java, Indonesia, on Monday, November 21. Indonesian rescue teams raced on Tuesday, November 22, to reach individuals still buried in the wreckage.

The shallow magnitude 5.6 earthquake epicenter was close to the town of Cianjur in a mountainous region of Indonesia’s most populous province. Monday afternoon’s earthquake forced locals to escape into the streets in despair as buildings fell.

Overnight, the parking lot of a hospital in Cianjur was flooded with victims, some of whom were treated in homemade tents, while others were hooked up to intravenous drips on the asphalt and medical personnel stitched up patients by the light of torches.

Cucu, a 48-year-old local, told Reuters from the busy hospital parking lot, “Everything fell beneath me and I was crushed beneath this child.”

Hundreds of police personnel were deployed to aid with rescue attempts on Tuesday morning, according to Dedi Prasetyo, national police spokesperson, as quoted by the state news agency Antara.

“The primary directive for employees today is to concentrate on evacuating victims,” he said.

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At least 162 people, many of them children, were killed in Monday’s earthquake, and more than 300 were injured, according to West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who warned that some inhabitants remained stranded in isolated areas.

He stated that authorities were operating “on the assumption that the number of injured and fatalities will increase over time.”

The national disaster agency (BNPB) confirmed the deaths of 62 persons but had not confirmed the deaths of 100 additional victims.

On Tuesday, officials worked to gain access to the Cugenang region that had been cut off by a landslide.

In some regions, power outages and more than eighty aftershocks hindered rescue attempts.

The BNPB reported that the quake, which was felt strongly in Jakarta, some 75 kilometers (45 miles) distant, damaged at least 2,200 homes and displaced more than 5,000 people.

Indonesia has a history of deadly earthquakes due to its location on the so-called “Ring of Fire,” a highly seismically active zone where several tectonic plates intersect.

In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia generated a tsunami that affected 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, with more than half of those fatalities occurring in Indonesia.