JAKARTA, September 4 (RIA Novosti) - More than 25.000 people were left homeless after an earthquake which shook the southern part of Indonesia's West Java earlier this week, local media reported on Friday.
The quake, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, struck on Wednesday afternoon, with the epicenter some 144 km (89 miles) to the south of the city of Bandung. The quake left five regions without electricity and destroyed thousands of homes.
According to Indonesian emergency officials, at least 110 people were hospitalized after the quake, 10 of them in a critical condition. Local media said at least 59 people died and hundreds were injured, with some four dozen still missing under a landslide that hit a village in the Cianjur district.
Military officials, police and locals are involved in the rescue operations, media reports said. However, rescuers were quoted by media as saying chances of finding anybody alive were very slight.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the most badly-hit area of West Java on Thursday and pledged funds to help those affected by the earthquake.
Part of the Pacific's Ring of Fire, Indonesia is in the world's most seismically active region, registering 6,000-7,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or above annually.
