Indonesia school collapse: search for victims ends as 67 confirmed dead

"Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said. Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers."

"The bodies of 67 people in the building have been found, as well as eight body parts that police are trying to identify, the disaster mitigation agency said in a statement, halting the search effort in a disaster it had called the year's deadliest. Operations due to the collapsed structure of the Al Khoziny school are officially closed, said Mohammad Syafii, chief of the search and rescue agency, after authorities cleared away the debris."

"The total number of victims evacuated is 171, with 67 people dead, including eight body parts, and 104 people survived, Yudhi told a press conference. Rescuers had used excavators and cranes to lift large chunks of concrete. Digging through tunnels, they shouted out the names of victims presumed to be still alive. Al Khoziny is one of more than 42,000 such schools nationwide, known as pesantren, just 50 of which have a building permit, the public works ministry has said."

Rescue teams concluded operations at the collapsed Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, after recovering 67 bodies and eight body parts and evacuating 171 people in total. Rescuers used excavators and cranes and searched tunnels, calling out names of those presumed alive before concluding further recovery was unlikely. Most occupants were teenage boys attending afternoon prayers when foundational failures caused the two-story building to cave in. Authorities allege two additional levels were added without permits, highlighting that only 50 of more than 42,000 pesantren nationwide have formal building permits and drawing public anger over illegal construction.

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