SIDOARJO, INDONESIA — Rescuers in East Java are engaged in a frantic, minute-by-minute search for survivors today, navigating a treacherous landscape of twisted rebar and huge concrete slabs after the catastrophic collapse of a building at a century-old Islamic boarding school.
The disaster, which occurred during afternoon prayers on Monday at the Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in Sidoarjo, has left a tragic tally: three students confirmed dead, nearly 100 people injured, and at least 38 people, mostly teenage boys, still believed to be trapped beneath the wreckage.
Signs of Life and a Critical Delay
The race to reach the buried victims—many aged between 12 and 17—is a desperate gamble against structural instability. Rescue teams, comprised of hundreds of soldiers, police, and volunteers, have been forced to rely on manual digging and specialized equipment rather than heavy machinery.
“We have been running oxygen and water to those still trapped under the debris and keeping them alive,” said Nanang Sigit, a local search and rescue official, highlighting the grim triage underway.
Crucially, rescuers have detected definitive signs of life. Utilizing search cameras, they confirmed that at least six victims were still alive in one section of the collapse, having delivered sustenance through existing gaps in the rubble. However, the operation was temporarily halted on Tuesday after the remaining concrete structure unexpectedly shook, underscoring the immense risk of a secondary collapse.
The Cause: An Unauthorized Expansion
The root of the tragedy points to a failure of construction standards, a familiar and fatal flaw in Indonesia.
Provincial police confirmed the collapsed structure was a prayer hall that was undergoing an unauthorized expansion. The original two-story building had two additional floors being added without the necessary permit. Authorities stated that the old building’s foundation pillars were simply unable to support the weight of the new concrete work on the fourth floor, causing the entire upper section to buckle and crash onto the students praying below.
As the death toll is expected to climb, the incident has ripped open the urgent national debate on lax construction oversight.
Outside the ruins, the scene is one of agonizing suspense. Families clutch mobile phone pictures of their missing children, their desperate cries a constant echo near the command post. With 77 injured victims already transferred to multiple local hospitals—some in critical condition requiring emergency surgery—the nation waits, hoping for a miracle to emerge from the dust of a preventable disaster.