Rescuers in Indonesia, who had spent days frantically trying to save students trapped under a collapsed school, said Thursday morning that they detected no more signs of life from under the rubble and would now focus on recovering bodies.
Five more students were pulled out alive from the Al Khoziny school in Sidoarjo, East Java Province, on Thursday morning, bringing the number of rescued people to 14. Two others were found dead, bringing the total death toll to five.
The National Disaster Management Agency estimated that 59 students were still trapped and presumed dead under the Islamic boarding school, which collapsed during a prayer service on Monday afternoon. It was unclear how many students were in the building when it fell.
Indonesia has more than 30,000 Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren, which often draw children from rural areas, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Al Khoziny, a secondary school built in 1964, has about 1,300 students from across the country.
The decision to end the search was made after assessments by the National Search and Rescue Agency over the past 24 hours using sound equipment, thermal drones and a wall scan to detect any motion from survivors.
“We did not detect any signs of life, so the joint team finally decided to enter the next stage, the search and evacuation stage, using heavy equipment,” Suharyanto, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency, said in a news conference.
Officials said they did not use the machines earlier out of concern that they could cause the structure to collapse further and endanger those still alive.
Rescuers asked grieving family members for consent before utilizing the heavy equipment on Thursday afternoon. They also took DNA samples from the victims’ families to track who was still missing.
Parents have been gathered at the location since Monday, waiting for news of their children.
Ahmad Iksan, 52, arrived Monday evening, shocked after being notified about the disaster through a parents’ WhatsApp group. He was sure that his son, 14-year-old Arif Afandi, was still alive when he started the hourlong drive from the city of Surabaya. But Mr. Iksan was distressed when he learned that his son was among the missing students.
“I’m still hoping my child is safe and will return to us,” Mr. Iksan said.
He described his youngest son as a kind and religious boy, whose eldest sister graduated from the same school a few years ago.
Mr. Iksan said that the boarding school apologized to families and asked for the parents’ forgiveness, calling the collapse an accident. They held a joint prayer service for the trapped students on Thursday morning.
Pratikno, the coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs, promised that the government would evaluate regulations regarding Islamic boarding schools with the Ministry of Religious Affairs. He offered condolences on behalf of the government.
“We will also coordinate with the Minister of Infrastructure to ensure that disasters like this won’t happen again,” Mr. Pratikno said in a news conference.
Officials blamed “technological failure” for the collapse of the building, which had been undergoing construction to add a fourth floor. Workers had been pouring concrete on the top floor when its pillars gave way, sending the upper part of the structure crashing onto a lower floor where students were praying, officials said.
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