Rescuers in Indonesia Pull 6-Year-Old Boy from Debris Days After Earthquake That Killed at Least 270

Zoey Lyttle
·2 min read
This frame grab taken from mobile phone video footage released by Bogor Administration shows a six-year-old boy being pulled out of the rubble in Cianjur, West Java on November 23, 2022, following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake
This frame grab taken from mobile phone video footage released by Bogor Administration shows a six-year-old boy being pulled out of the rubble in Cianjur, West Java on November 23, 2022, following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake

HANDOUT/BOGOR ADMINISTRATION/AFP via Getty Images

A 6-year-old boy has been pulled from the debris of the 5.6-magnitude earthquake that hit Indonesia over two days earlier.

On Wednesday, rescuers found Azka Maulana Malik under rubble in the village of Nagrak, located in the highly impacted Cianjur regency of West Java, according to CNN.

Just following the disaster, Indonesia's National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) estimated that over 60 people had been killed in the earthquake.

On Wednesday, Maj. Gen. Suharyanto, who heads the BNPB, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the death toll has been raised to over 271, CNN reports. Suharyanto added that more than one-third of the confirmed victims were children.

Hundreds of joint forces worked together to dig up piles of soil to look for earthquake victims in Cugenang District, Cianjur, Indonesia
Hundreds of joint forces worked together to dig up piles of soil to look for earthquake victims in Cugenang District, Cianjur, Indonesia

Keyza Widiatmika/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The BNPB noted that Azka – who is now being treated for injuries in a nearby hospital, per the reports of local media – was found next to his grandmother's body. His parent's bodies were already removed from the debris by the time their son was found.

During the press conference, Suharyanto said that over 2,000 people sustained injuries and over 61,000 had been displaced. Additionally, 56,320 houses were damaged.

In the hours after Monday's earthquake, Herman Suherman, the head of the Cianjur regency, said that the majority of deaths were caused by falling buildings. "Some were hit on the head," he said at the time, as reported by The Washington Post. "All you can hear here is ambulance sirens everywhere."

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Geographically, Indonesia and its population of over 276 million are particularly vulnerable to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes based on its location in the "Ring of Fire," as the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin has come to be known.

In December 2004, Indonesia was struck by a tsunami that was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake. The disaster killed 230,000 people in the region.