Azka, a 6-year-old boy, has been rescued “miraculously” after surviving for more than two days under the rubble of his home, which collapsed with the impact of the magnitude 5.6 earthquake that shook Indonesia last Monday and has already left more than 270 dead, including nearly a hundred children.

Azka, a 6-year-old boy rescued after 2 days under the rubble in Indonesia

Azka, a 6-year-old boy rescued after 2 days under the rubble in Indonesia

After a rescue on Wednesday that the emergency services described as “miraculous”, the little boy was admitted to a hospital in the Cianjur district, epicenter of the earthquake, and is in a state of “weakness but responds” to treatment, as reported today members of the emergency service to the local media.

“He was under cement structures of the house that was partially standing thanks to a closet, so there was a very narrow space for Azka to breathe,” explained the boy’s uncle, Miftahudin, in a video of the rescue broadcast by emergencies.

In the images, you can see the exact moment when about fifteen rescuers, surrounded by dozens of volunteers, locate Azka and pull him out alive and without apparent injuries from the destruction of what used to be his room at the time.

“At that time, Azka used to be asleep in his room,” said Miftahudin, who added that both the child’s mother and grandmother could not resist the collapse of the house and died inside it.

Monday’s earthquake already leaves 271 dead, 2,043 injured and 61,908 displaced, figures that make it the deadliest in Indonesia since 2018, when an earthquake and tsunami on the island of Sulawesi claimed the lives of more than 4,300 people.

According to the authorities, 37% of the fatalities are children, which translates into nearly a hundred infants, since the tremors hit West Java, the country’s most populous province, during school hours and wreaked havoc on dozens of children. of educational centers.

This Thursday, the search and rescue teams, which number more than a thousand people including firefighters, rescuers and volunteers, entered the fourth day of operations to locate 40 people who remain missing.

A complex task that, however, has been made difficult by the various seismic aftershocks recorded after the initial impact, as well as by torrential rains and the risk of new landslides, which briefly interrupted work the day before.

Given these conditions, the authorities acknowledge that the chances of finding survivors under the rubble are increasingly low, although they assured that the work will continue “tirelessly.”

“We hope that all the victims can be found soon,” said the head of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency, Henri Alfiandi.

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