🔗 Share this article Catastrophe in Southeast Asia: Educational Building Collapse Fatalities Rises to 14, Dozens Still Missing The number of fatalities from a catastrophic school building collapse in Indonesia escalated to 14 on Friday as emergency crews pulled multiple bodies from under the rubble. Numerous of students remain unaccounted for and the death toll is expected to increase further. Rescue Efforts Ramp Up as Hope Fades Initially, rescuers searched by hand for survivors after the structure caved in on Monday. However, after no more detections of survivors found by Thursday, they began using large machinery equipped with jackhammers to speed up the operation. Emergency workers labored in the blazing heat on Friday to break up and remove large slabs of debris, with the odor of decomposing bodies a grim indication of what they would find underneath. By the evening, they had found nine victims, bringing the official death toll to 14, with nearly 50 students remaining missing. Details of the Collapse The structure fell on top of hundreds of people on Monday in a prayer hall at the century-old Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo in East Java, about 780km (480 miles) east of Jakarta. The head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Suharyanto, informed reporters at the site on Friday that the recovery efforts were expected to be finished by the end of Saturday. The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between 12 and 19 years old. Girls were worshipping in a different section of the building and were able to get out safely, survivors said. Eyewitness Testimony: Narrow Survival from the Rubble Thirteen-year-old Rizalul Qoib, one of 104 those who escaped, came back to the scene on Friday to look at what was remaining of his school, and said he was fortunate to have escaped with only a small cut to his head. He said, similar to his peers, he had been praying when he heard something similar to the sound of falling rocks, which got louder and louder. “I ceased my prayers and ran when I felt the floor shaking,” he remembered. “Suddenly the building gave way, the debris of the roof landed on my head, my face.” Then the room went dark, but he heard someone yelling, “this way, follow me” and he followed the voice until he eventually found a narrow gap in the rubble. “I just went toward the light,” Qoib said. A significant number of the others who were injured but got out or were saved experienced serious head trauma and fractures, and are continuing to receive care in the medical facility. Reason of the Collapse Officials have stated the structure was two floors, but two more levels were under construction lacking authorization. Law enforcement said the old building’s foundation apparently was unable to support the extra floors and failed during the pouring process. Administrative staff have not yet commented.