CIANJUR, Indonesia (AFP) — A seven-year-old Indonesian girl who was the subject of a day-long rescue effort after an earthquake killed 272 people 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, epicenter of the quake that triggered landslides, collapsed roofs, walls and buried victims in mounds of earth Monday.
"The body was immediately handed over to the family. The family accepted and she was then buried," 28-year-old rescuer Jeksen Kolibu told AFP.
"The family was very hysterical. They were very sad. The mother was the one who received the body."
Dozens 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 until Friday morning.
Cika was found under three layers of concrete, said Kolibu.
"She was playing outside, I was cooking in the kitchen, suddenly the earthquake happened, so fast, only two seconds, my house collapsed," her mother Imas Masfahitah, 34, told AFP at the scene on Thursday.
"Whatever happens, I will try to accept it," she added, crying as she held on to her daughter's sandals.
