Disaster crews in Indonesia were racing to save students still alive under piles of rubble two days after an Islamic boarding school collapsed during a prayer service, killing at least three of their classmates and injuring dozens more.
Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency estimated that 91 people were still trapped or feared dead at the Al Khoziny school in East Java Province, which collapsed Monday afternoon.
Officials blamed “technological failure” for the collapse of the low-rise building, which had been undergoing construction work to add a fourth floor.
“We are now focusing on evacuating students under the rubble,” Emil Elistianto Dardak, deputy governor of East Java, said in an interview. Eleven people had been pulled out alive as of midday Wednesday, he said, and teams were directing their efforts toward another five to seven students “who are still able to communicate” with them.
Some workers were digging with their hands to try to reach them, while others distributed food and water through the gap to maintain the victims’ condition, said Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.
Once the authorities determine there are no more likely survivors, heavy equipment will be brought in to remove the buried bodies, he said. Officials said they have not used the machines out of concern that they could cause the structure to collapse further and endanger those still alive.
Nanang Sigit, the head of an East Java office for the agency, said the work was challenging because what was left of the building, in the town of Sidoarjo, was unstable and could potentially collapse.
He said workers had been pouring concrete on the school’s top floor when its pillars gave way, sending the upper part of the structure crashing onto a lower floor where students were praying.
“The collapse of the building construction falls into the category of technological failure,” Mr. Muhari said.
He said 26 people remained hospitalized, some in critical condition. Another 70 were discharged.
Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, has more than 30,000 Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren, where children, often from rural areas, come to live and study, according to the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs.
Shoddy construction is a problem in Indonesia, where buildings have collapsed in earthquakes because of structural instability. In 2022, an earthquake in Java, the country’s main island, killed hundreds and flattened homes and buildings.
No seismic activity was reported at the time the school collapsed, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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