JAKARTA: The death toll from the collapse of an Islamic boarding school building in Indonesia’s East Java province has climbed to 36, up from 16 a day earlier, according to the country’s disaster mitigation agency on Sunday.
Rescue teams have continued their search for a seventh consecutive day, working tirelessly to locate 27 students still missing, most of them teenage boys aged between 13 and 19.
The tragic incident occurred at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Sidoarjo, where the building collapsed during afternoon prayers last Monday. Officials said the structure’s foundation gave way due to ongoing construction work on its upper floors, causing it to cave in on hundreds of students.
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Heavy machinery and cranes have been deployed to clear debris and locate trapped victims, with rescue operations now 60% complete. Authorities hope to finish the search by Monday, though chances of finding survivors are increasingly slim.
“Rescuers have been calling out the boys’ names and using sensors to detect movement, but no signs of life have been found,” the agency said.
After days of manual digging, families of the missing students gave permission for heavy equipment to be used, as the painstaking search entered its final stages.
The Al Khoziny pesantren is among Indonesia’s vast network of over 42,000 Islamic boarding schools, serving around 7 million students nationwide, according to the Religious Affairs Ministry.
This tragedy has once again highlighted safety lapses and weak construction standards at many educational institutions across the country.
Authorities have pledged a full investigation into the collapse and to review building safety protocols at religious schools nationwide.