Rescuers ran oxygen and water to students trapped in the unstable concrete rubble of a collapsed school building, as they desperately worked to free survivors a day after the structure fell.
At least three students were killed and dozens were presumed buried in the rubble.
Rescue workers, police and soldiers digging through the night pulled out eight weak and injured survivors more than eight hours after the collapse at Al Khoziny school in the East Java town of Sidoarjo. Rescuers saw additional bodies, indicating the death toll was likely to rise.
Rescue efforts were temporarily suspended at 10.15am as the collapsed concrete shook suddenly. People immediately ran for their lives, fearing another collapse, as rescuers urged everyone in the area to avoid the building, including more than dozens of ambulances that parked near the scene. The work resumed around 1.45pm. The students are mostly boys in grades seven to 11, between ages 12 and 18.
Families anxiously awaited news at hospitals or near the collapsed building. A notice posted at the school complex yesterday listed 65 students as missing.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari revised the number of people presumed buried in the rubble to 38 by midday.
“Oh my God... my son is still buried, oh my God please help!” a mother cried hysterically upon seeing her child’s name on the board, followed by the cries of other parents whose relatives had suffered a similar fate.
“Please, sir, please find my child immediately,” cried a father, holding the hand of one of the rescue team members.
Heavy slabs of concrete and other rubble and unstable parts of the building hampered search and rescue efforts, said Nanang Sigit, a search and rescue officer who led the effort.
“We have been running oxygen and water to those still trapped under the debris and keeping them alive while we work hard to get them out,” Nanang said.
He added that rescuers saw several bodies under the rubble but were focused on saving those who were still alive.
Several hundred rescuers were involved in the effort and had equipment for breathing, extrication, medical evacuation and other support tools.
Islamic boarding schools are commonly called “pesantren” in Indonesia, and its students who are called as “santri”. Unlike students in public schools, the santri board in dormitories because apart from studying formal education, they also study Islamic religious knowledge intensively and return home only during school holidays.
The students had been performing afternoon prayers in a building that was undergoing an unauthorised expansion when it suddenly collapsed on top of them, provincial police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast said.
Residents, teachers and administrators assisted injured students, many with head injuries and broken bones. Female students were praying in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said.
One male student, a 13-year-old boy, was found dead on Monday and 102 students and teachers were injured and taken to hospitals, some of them in critical condition, Muhari said.
Two male students died from their injuries while being treated in Notopuro General Hospital, the hospital director Atok Irawan said. The two were among 11 students who initially were pulled out alive from the rubble by rescuers, he said.
At least one student had to have his arm amputated and two others underwent surgery for head injuries, Atok said.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the collapse. Abast said the old prayer hall was two storeys but two more were being added without a permit.
“The old building’s foundation was apparently unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process,” he said. — AP
