Rescuers race to save lives as hundreds die in quake

Indonesian rescue workers were racing to reach people still trapped in rubble on Tuesday, a day after an earthquake struck the main island of Java, as the death toll rose to 252.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe and Adi Renaldi JAKARTA

Monday afternoon's quake, centred in the Cianjur region of West Java province, struck at a depth of 10km, triggering landslides and damaging buildings, including thousands of homes.

The number of people killed was unclear. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, the local government said 252 were confirmed dead, with 31 missing, 377 injured and 7,060 displaced.

Ridwan Kamil, the governor of West Java, said the majority of the dead were children, many of them students taking extra lessons. "So many incidents occurred at several Islamic schools," he said.

Provisional data released by the authorities and cited by Save the Children said there were about 51 education sites affected, including 30 elementary schools, 12 junior high schools, one high school, five vocational schools and one special school.