Race against time: Search and rescue officers looking for victims amidst the rubble of the building that collapsed while students were praying at the Al Khoziny boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java. — Reuters
THE nation’s rescuers were racing yesterday to find 38 people feared trapped beneath the rubble of an Islamic boarding school that collapsed in East Java during afternoon prayers, killing at least three, said disaster officials.
Three people were confirmed dead and 99 others survived the collapse at the Al Khoziny boarding school in Sidoarjo, a town about 780km east of Jakarta, according to Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency.
Grief beyond words: A police officer helping a woman walk away from the collapsed building in Sidoarjo. — AP
Earlier yesterday, disaster mitigation agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said the unstable building collapsed during construction, adding: “This sudden occurrence caused building material to fall on dozens of students and workers.”
An excavator and a crane were among the heavy equipment Mohammad said searchers were using to shift the rubble.
Nanang Sigit, a local search and rescue official, said 38 people remained missing and authorities would not use heavy equipment for fear of causing the remaining structure to collapse.
Abdul said nearly 80 of the injured were taken to hospital.
Holding on to hope: A victim’s family member crying in the company of relatives near the school collapse. — Reuters
Video images from news channel KompasTV showed families of students clustered around a whiteboard looking at a list of survivors.
The disaster mitigation agency said the building’s foundations allegedly could not support the weight of construction on its fourth floor.
Al Khoziny caretaker Abdus Salam Mujib was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying building work had ended before the prayers but said the foundations could not support the construction. — Reuters
