Rescuers Continue Search for Trapped Students After Indonesian School Collapse

By Staff, Agencies

In Indonesia’s East Java province, more than ten ambulances were stationed near the site of a collapsed Islamic school building on Friday, as rescuers continued their desperate search for nearly 60 students still believed to be trapped beneath the rubble, according to a Reuters witness.

The Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school, located in the town of Sidoarjo, caved in on Monday during afternoon prayer, collapsing onto hundreds of teenage students. Investigators said the building’s foundations were unable to support ongoing construction work on its upper floors, leading to the deadly structural failure.

Most of the missing students are teenage boys aged between 13 and 19. Emergency crews have deployed heavy machinery, including cranes, to clear debris and search for survivors. Rows of ambulances remain on standby at the scene.

By late Thursday, Indonesia’s disaster management officials confirmed that five students had died, while around 30 others were being treated in nearby hospitals. Rescuers reported hearing no signs of life after digging through tunnels in the wreckage, despite calling out the boys’ names and using motion sensors to detect any movement.

Al Khoziny, a well-known pesantren [Islamic boarding school], is one of approximately 42,000 such institutions across Indonesia — home to the world’s largest Muslim population — serving an estimated seven million students, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the collapse and whether construction safety standards were violated in the expansion of the school building.