Rescue teams in East Java, Indonesia, are racing against time to save scores of students and workers feared trapped under the rubble of a collapsed school building.
The tragedy struck on Monday at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, around 780 km east of Jakarta, when the structure gave way during late-afternoon prayers. At the time, pupils had gathered in a mosque on the building’s lower floor, while upper levels remained under construction.
Authorities confirmed that 91 people remain missing, while three bodies have been recovered. At least 99 others survived, though 26 are being treated in hospitals for injuries.
Parents’ Desperate Search
The collapse has left families in anguish. Parents crowded around whiteboards listing survivors’ names, while others joined the search. One relative, Holy Abdullah Arif, described running through the ruins calling for his missing nephew, only to hear another child crying out for help from beneath the rubble.
Structural Failures
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency said the two-storey building’s unstable foundation could not withstand the added weight of new construction, which had extended the structure to four floors. A caretaker at the school confirmed that construction work had stopped earlier in the day, but the foundations were already compromised.
Rescuers have deployed excavators and cranes but are limiting the use of heavy machinery to avoid triggering further collapse. “The rescuers are still searching for 91 people,” said agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari, noting the precarious state of the structure.
Growing Concerns Over Building Safety
The collapse underscores wider concerns about building safety standards in Indonesia, where rapid construction often outpaces regulatory oversight. For now, families wait anxiously as search and rescue teams battle unstable rubble and fading hope in the desperate bid to find survivors.
