TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team has identified the newly-found body of a Cianjur earthquake victim, who was buried in the landslide at Cijedil Village.

The latest finding has brought the total number of casualties to 603.

The victim, identified as Sahroni, 24, was a resident of Cijedil Village, Cugenang Sub-district, Cianjur District, West Java Province. His body was found on Sunday (December 18, 2022).

Head of the multimedia information and documentation management (PIDM) sub-section of the Cianjur Resort Police, Second Inspector Nanang Sunarya, said here on Monday that Sahroni was identified based on fingerprint, medical, as well as dental and property records.

He informed that the number of Cianjur quake victims identified by the DVI team had reached 159.

"The body (of the newly-found victim) had been immediately handed over to his family to be properly buried," the Cianjur Resort Police official added.

Currently, there are still a number of bodies, but no relatives have provided any ante-mortem data about the victims, he added.

Thus, DVI teams are still struggling to identify the bodies.

Hence, Sunarya urged people whose relatives were still missing to report to the police’s ante-mortem post in the forensics department of Sayang Cianjur Regional Hospital (RSUD).

"Please come with the victims' data, such as a family card, medical record, dental record, last photograph of the victim, and fingerprint record, as well as bring relatives who have a kinship to serve as a comparative DNA sample," he added.

The 5.6-magnitude earthquake, which rattled Cianjur district on November 21, 2022, damaged tens of thousands of houses and displaced hundreds of thousands of residents.

Currently, the search and rescue team is still looking for seven missing victims.

The search is being focused on two locations in the State Sinta-Cijedil area and Mangunkerta Street, Cugenang sub-district, where the victims were reported to have been seen before being buried in a landslide reaching a height of about 30 meters.

ANTARA

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