Indonesian school collapse: death toll rises to 14 as crews pull more bodies from rubble

"Rescuers initially searched by hand for survivors after the building caved in on Monday. But with no more signs of life detected by Thursday, they turned to heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers to help them progress more rapidly. Crews worked in the hot sun on Friday to break up and remove large slabs of concrete, with the smell of decomposing bodies a grim reminder of what they would find underneath."

"The structure fell on top of hundreds of people on Monday in a prayer hall at the century-old Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo in East Java, about 780km (480 miles) east of Jakarta. The head of Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Suharyanto, told reporters at the scene on Friday that the recovery efforts were expected to be complete by the end of Saturday. The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between the ages of 12 and 19."

A century-old Islamic boarding school prayer hall in Sidoarjo, East Java, collapsed on Monday, burying hundreds of people. Rescue teams recovered 14 bodies by Friday and expect the death toll to rise, with nearly 50 students still unaccounted for. Rescuers searched by hand for survivors initially, then switched to heavy excavators with jackhammers after no signs of life were detected by Thursday. Crews worked under the hot sun to break and remove large concrete slabs while the smell of decomposing bodies indicated likely fatalities beneath the rubble. Most victims were boys aged 12–19; female students in another part of the building escaped.

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