AP, Sidoarjo: Indonesia: Emergency crews in Indonesia worked through the night to reach students trapped beneath the ruins of a collapsed school building, delivering oxygen and water to survivors still buried under unstable debris. The collapse left at least one student dead, dozens injured, and around 65 others feared trapped.
The disaster occurred at Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in Sidoarjo, East Java. Rescuers, along with police and military personnel, managed to pull out eight survivors over eight hours after the building came down. Some bodies were also spotted in the wreckage, suggesting the death toll could rise.
Parents and relatives gathered in grief and fear near the school and hospitals, many in tears as they waited for updates. A notice board at the rescue command center listed 65 missing students, most of them boys between 12 and 17 years old.
One distraught mother cried out after seeing her son’s name on the missing list: “Oh my God... my son is still buried, oh my God please help!” Other parents joined her in anguish. A father pleaded with a rescuer, “Please, sir, please find my child immediately.”
Rescue efforts were slowed by large chunks of concrete and unstable debris, making it too dangerous to use heavy machinery. Nanang Sigit, the rescue operation leader, said oxygen and water were being passed to trapped students to keep them alive during the rescue. Although some bodies had been located, the focus remained on reaching survivors.
Hundreds of rescue workers equipped with breathing devices, medical tools, and extraction gear continued the search.
The collapse happened while students were performing afternoon prayers inside a building undergoing an unauthorized expansion. According to police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast, two additional stories were being added without proper permits, and the structure failed during the concrete pouring.
While the boys were trapped in the collapsed area, female students praying elsewhere in the building managed to escape. A 13-year-old boy was confirmed dead, and 99 others were injured—some critically—and taken to nearby hospitals.
Authorities are now investigating the collapse, which they believe occurred because the original two-story building's foundation couldn’t support the additional construction.
