Parents in East Java searched frantically on Tuesday for dozens of missing teenage boys feared trapped beneath concrete after an Islamic boarding school collapsed during evening prayers. Authorities said 91 people were unaccounted for after the Al-Khoziny school in Sidoarjo, about 780 kilometers east of Jakarta, crumbled while students prayed in a mosque on the lower floor. The upper levels of the building were still under construction.
By nightfall, rescuers had recovered three bodies. Ninety-nine students and staff survived, but most of the missing were believed to be buried under massive slabs of concrete.
Holy Abdullah Arif, 49, wept as he clutched a photo of his nephew Rosi, still missing. He described his desperate search in the ruins. “I ran around screaming, ‘Rosi! Rosi! If you can hear me and can move, get out!’ Then a child screamed back from the rubble. I thought it was Rosi, so I asked, ‘Are you Rosi?’ and the child said, ‘God, no, help me!’”
Families gathered around a whiteboard listing survivors, scanning for the names of their children.
Rescue crews deployed an excavator and a crane but avoided heavy machinery near the unstable structure, fearing further collapse. “The rescuers are still searching for 91 people,” said Abdul Muhari, a spokesperson for the disaster mitigation agency. He added that 26 of the injured remained in hospital.
Officials said the building’s foundations may not have been strong enough to support the weight of a fourth floor under construction. School caretaker Abdus Salam Mujib confirmed that construction work had ended for the day before the collapse but acknowledged the foundations could not bear the added load.
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