KUALA LUMPUR
\nA seven-year-old Indonesian girl who was the subject of a day-long rescue effort after an earthquake killed hundreds in West Java has been found dead, rescuers told AFP on Friday.
\nEmergency workers found the body of Ashika Nur Fauziah, also known as Cika, under rubble in the worst-hit district of Cianjur town (the epicentre of the quake that triggered landslides) collapsed roofs and walls and buried victims in mounds of earth on Monday.
\n\u201cThe body was immediately handed over to the family,\u201d 28-year-old rescuer Jeksen Kolibu told AFP. \u201cThe family was very sad,\u201d he added.
\nDozens of rescuers had spent most of Thursday using digging tools, hammers and their bare hands to clear debris in the delicate mission, which was suspended overnight.
\nCika was found under three layers of concrete on Friday morning, said Kolibu. Workers found her face-down, encased by debris, with little space to breathe.
\nRescuers covered her face and put her into a bodybag as her father Ahmad watched on, holding his head in despair. He did not utter a word as she was handed over to him.
\nCika was buried at a nearby cemetery less than an hour after being found. At the funeral, a cleric tried to calm a visibly emotional Ahmad.
\nCika was then wrapped in a white sheet and lowered into the ground by three men as exhausted volunteers and firefighters watched.
\nThe focus of the search had been the girl\u2019s grandmother\u2019s house, across the road from the family home, where her mother believed she had been playing when the earthquake struck.
\n\u201cShe was playing outside, I was cooking in the kitchen, suddenly the earthquake happened, so fast, only two seconds, my house collapsed,\u201d her mother Imas Masfahitah, 34, told AFP at the scene on Thursday.
\n\u201cWhatever happens, I will try to accept it,\u201d she added, crying as she held her daughter\u2019s sandals.
\nHopes of a happy outcome had been raised following the dramatic rescue of a six-year-old boy, Azka, on Wednesday evening, which was described as a \u201cmiracle\u201d after he survived more than two days in the rubble without food or water.
\n\u201cThe mother was very hopeful. Azka survived, while Cika didn\u2019t. That\u2019s what makes me sad,\u201d rescuer Kolibu said.
\nThe most recent official death toll from the quake was 272.
\nBefore Cika was found, authorities said 39 people were still missing, as hammering rain and potentially deadly aftershocks hampered the rescue effort.
\nBut Henri Alfiandi, head of the national search and rescue agency, said 13 bodies were recovered on Friday.
\n\u201cThe problems are the unstable soil, the thickness of the landslide pile aggravated by continuous rain and the concerns of aftershocks,\u201d he told broadcaster Kompas TV.
\nHe said the emergency period for the search and rescue effort would last a week until Monday and authorities would evaluate if it needed to be extended if all the missing had not been found.
\nMany of those killed in the quake were children, some in classes at school, according to officials.
\nMore than 2,000 people were injured, 56,000 houses were damaged and more than 62,000 people were forced to evacuate to shelters, leaving many homeless without adequate supplies.
\nIndonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific \u201cRing of Fire\u201d, where tectonic plates collide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUALA LUMPUR A seven-year-old Indonesian girl who was the subject of a day-long rescue effort after an earthquake killed hundreds in West Java has been found dead, rescuers told AFP on Friday. Emergency workers found the body of Ashika Nur Fauziah, also known as Cika, under rubble in the worst-hit district of Cianjur town (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-297479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n