Frantic rush to reach scores of students missing for days after boarding school collapse in Indonesia

By Helen Regan, CNN, Oct.1: Indonesian rescue teams are frantically searching for scores of young students buried for two days under concrete rubble after their Islamic boarding school collapsed on them during afternoon prayers.

In one pocket of the mangled concrete of the collapsed century-old Al Khoziny boarding school, authorities located six people alive and were running food, water and oxygen to the trapped group. But in total, at least 91 people remain missing, feared under the rubble, Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Authority (BPBD) said late Tuesday. At least three people have died, and 100 others were injured.

Desperate family members have gathered at the school in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, about 670 kilometers (420 miles) east of Jakarta, where a list naming the missing students had been posted.

The students were mostly boys aged between 12 and 18 who were performing afternoon prayers in a prayer hall of the school when the building collapsed on top of them on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

Holy Abdullah Arif, 49, ran to the school when he heard about the collapse to find that his 13-year-old nephew was listed among the missing.

“I ran around screaming, ‘Rosi! Rosi! If you can hear me and can move, get out!’” he told Reuters news agency.

“And then a child was screaming back from the rubble, he was stuck. I thought that was Rosi, so I asked, ‘Are you Rosi?’ and the child said, ‘God, no, help me!’”

“I don’t know how he’s doing, whether he can be saved, whether he’s dead or alive,” he said.

About 300 rescue workers continued to try and reach those trapped on Wednesday. But efforts have been hampered by the instability of the collapsed structure, and there are concerns that using heavy machinery to remove the debris would cause the building to further collapse.

“Rescue efforts are currently focused on manually digging holes and gaps to evacuate surviving victims,” the BPBD said.

Nanang Sigit, a search and rescue officer leading the effort, told the AP that rescuers had been running oxygen to those still trapped under the debris to keep them alive.

He added that rescuers saw several bodies under the rubble but were focused on saving those who were still alive, the AP reported.

Construction work was being carried out at the prayer hall at the time of the collapse, BPBD spokesperson Abdul Muhari said in a statement Tuesday. Concrete was being poured on the fourth floor of the hall and the building’s foundations failed to support the added weight.

The prayer hall construction had been ongoing without a permit, the AP reported, citing local authorities.