Jakarta: More than 46 people have been confirmed killed and hundreds injured in the earthquake in Indonesia's largest island Java.

According to data from the US Geological Survey, the magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurred in the West Javanese city of Cianjur at a shallow depth of 10 km (6 mi).

About 100 km away in Jakarta, where residents of multi-storey buildings were evacuated, tremors could be felt. Officials say there could be more deaths and issue warnings about possible aftershocks.

Also Read: Iranian Actor Arrested For Publishing Video supporting Anti-hijab Protesters

The earthquake was felt in a heavily populated, landslide-prone area with substandard housing. According to local reports, rescue workers were able to rescue a mother and her infant while trying to rescue people from the collapsed buildings.

Siyanjur city administrator Herman Suhrman told local media that at least 46 people had been killed. "Multiple locations continued to produce victims. There were approximately 700 injuries," he told Kompas TV.

Earlier, he was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that most of the injuries were caused by bone fractures, brought on by people trapped in the building's debris.

Also Read:  Armed police are stationed to protect a Persian-language TV station in London

He said that ambulances keep reaching the hospital from the villages. There are many families in the villages who have not gone. Social media videos showed the destruction to homes and businesses.

According to a statement by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, dozens of buildings have been damaged in the Cianjur area. These include a hospital and a boarding school for Muslims. During the minute-long earthquake in Jakarta, office workers fled buildings in the civilian and business district.

"I was working when the ground beneath me began to tremble. I was fully aware of the earthquake. I made no effort to process it, but it got stronger and remained for a while." According to lawyer Mayadita Valuyo, AFP news agency.

"We are used to this earthquake in Jakarta, but people were just too nervous, so we got nervous too," Ahmad Ridwan, an employee at the office,

Also Read:  'Main threat' to World Heritage sites is climate change

Indonesia, which lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" region of tectonic activity, experiences frequent earthquakes. The country has a history of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, with the 2018 Sulawesi earthquake killing more than 2,000 people.