Islamic school in Indonesia collapses, killing 3 pupils and injuring dozens more
The death toll is likely to rise as 65 students are believed to be still trapped under the rubble of the boarding school in East Java
Rescuers, police and soldiers digging through the night pulled out eight weak and injured survivors more than eight hours after the collapse at Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the East Java town of Sidoarjo. Rescuers saw additional bodies, indicating the death toll was likely to rise.
Rescue efforts were temporarily suspended at 10.15am as the collapsed concrete shook suddenly, indicating another collapse could be imminent. People immediately ran for their lives, some screaming, as rescuers urged everyone in the area to avoid the building.
Families of the students gathered at hospitals or near the collapsed building, anxiously awaiting news of their children. Relatives wailed as they watched rescuers pull a dusty, injured student from the buried prayer hall.
A notice board at the command post set up in the boarding school complex listed 65 students as missing as of Tuesday morning. They are mostly boys in grades seven to 11, between the ages of 12 and 17.
“Oh my God … my son is still buried, oh my God please help!” a mother cried hysterically upon seeing her child’s name on the board, followed by the cries of other parents whose relatives had suffered a similar fate.