Indonesian rescuers race through rubble after school collapse
Rescue workers in East Java continued searching on the event date after a collapse at the al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo left six people dead, dozens of students missing and about 100 injured, according to the supplied AP report. The scale of the disaster is severe enough to make this one of the region’s most urgent rescue operations.
The building gave way on Monday afternoon during prayer time, when hundreds of people were present in the prayer hall. AP says the hall was in a century-old boarding school on the eastern side of Java island. The structure was undergoing an unauthorized expansion, with two additional levels being added without a permit. Authorities said the existing foundation apparently could not support the concrete being poured during the work.
That detail is central. This was not a sudden weather-related collapse or a pure natural disaster. It happened while a building was being altered, and the new levels were being added on top of a structure that police believed was not built to carry the load. Still, the packet does not assign criminal blame or identify any arrested suspects, so the article should stop short of legal conclusions.
Rescue crews said they were racing against time because some of the trapped students were believed to still be alive. More than 300 workers were involved in the operation, and officials used detectors, thermal drones, oxygen, water and food sent through gaps in the debris to try to keep survivors alive. Heavy equipment was available but was not being used in some areas because of the risk of causing another collapse.
The death toll rose gradually as the search continued. Five survivors had already been brought out using a tunnel dug at the base of the building, and later one boy was pulled out alive and taken to hospital. The AP report says his condition was not immediately known.
Most of the students in the hall were boys between the ages of 12 and 18. Female students were in another section of the building and escaped, according to survivors. The injured, about 100 in total, included more than two dozen people still hospitalized, many with head injuries and broken bones. Those figures reveal how far the collapse spread through the hall and how many families were suddenly affected.
Authorities had initially said 38 people were missing, but later revised that figure upward after consulting attendance lists and speaking with families. That correction is a reminder that early disaster counts are often incomplete. In a chaotic scene like this, it can take time to know who was inside, who escaped and who is still under the rubble.
