Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday condoled with the government and people of Indonesia as a 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds in the country’s West Java province.
West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil confirmed 56 deaths from the quake, whose epicenter was the town of Cianjur, about 75 km (45 miles) southeast of the capital, Reuters reported.
“Tragic news of the earthquake and resultant loss of precious lives in Indonesia,” the Pakistani foreign minister said on Twitter.
“Our heartfelt condolences and prayers for our Indonesian brothers and sisters, especially families of the victims.”
Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth’s crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.
