Indonesian rescuers searching for missing students after a prayer hall at an Islamic boarding school collapsed last week recovered the bodies of dozens of students over the weekend, bringing the confirmed death toll to 49.
Using heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers, circular saws and sometimes their bare hands, rescue teams diligently removed tons of rubble in an attempt to find the 14 students reportedly still missing. Rescuers found 35 bodies over the weekend alone, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said.
The structure fell on top of hundreds of students, mostly boys between the ages of 12 and 19, on Sept. 29 at the century-old Al Khoziny school in Sidoarjo on the eastern side of Indonesia’s Java island. Only one student escaped unscathed, authorities said, while 97 were treated for various injuries and released. Six others suffered serious injuries and remained hospitalized Sunday.
Police said two levels were being added to the two-story building without a permit, leading to structural failure. This has triggered widespread anger over illegal construction in Indonesia.
“The construction couldn’t support the load while the concrete was pouring (to build) the third floor because it didn’t meet standards and the whole 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) construction collapsed,” said Mudji Irmawan, a construction expert from Tenth November Institute of Technology.
Irmawan also said students shouldn’t have been allowed inside a building under construction.
Sidoarjo district chief, Subandi, confirmed what the police had announced: The school’s management had not applied for the required permit before starting construction.
“Many buildings, including traditional boarding school extensions, in non-urban areas were built without a permit,” Subandi, who goes by a single name, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
