Iran Press/ Asia: Rescuers have been trying to reach survivors trapped under the rubble as aftershocks hit. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil confirmed 56 deaths from the quake.
The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.6 quake was centred in the Cianjur region in West Java province at a depth of 10 kilometres. The weather and geophysics agency BMKG said there was no potential for a tsunami.
Cianjur is about 100 kilometres south of Jakarta, and the quake was felt strongly in the capital and the surrounding area.
Herman Suherman, head of the city administration of Cianjur, West Java, told news channel Metro TV that about 700 people had been injured.
He added that "at least" 300 people were being treated in one hospital in the city alone. "Most have broken bones after being trapped in the rubble of buildings," Suherman said.
Relatives of the victims were gathering at Sayang hospital, he added, warning that the toll could rise as villagers may still be trapped in the rubble, and many families in villages had not yet been evacuated.
Thousands of houses damaged
Authorities had earlier reported rescuing a woman and baby trapped in a landslide in Cianjur.
"There have been dozens of people killed. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of houses are damaged," a spokesman for the administration of the West Java town of Cianjur told AFP.
The damaged buildings included an Islamic boarding school, a hospital and other public facilities, National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto said. He also quoted the figure of 46 dead and 700 injured.
Information was still being collected about the extent of casualties and damage, the agency said.
Over 1,400 residents fled their homes and took shelters as their houses were destroyed by the tremors, Nena Fatimah, senior officer at the data and information unit of the district's disaster management and mitigation, told Xinhua by phone.
Footage from Metro TV showed some buildings in Cianjur reduced almost entirely to rubble as worried residents huddled outside.
Earthquakes occur frequently across the sprawling archipelago nation, but it is uncommon for them to be felt in Jakarta.
The country is vulnerable due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates meet.
In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
In 2018, the island of Lombok and the neighbouring island of Sumbawa were hit by a violent earthquake that killed over 550 people.
The quake struck at 13:21 Jakarta time (0621 GMT) with the epicenter located at 10 km southwest of the district of Cianjur in West Java province, and with a depth of 10 km, the meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency said.
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