Death toll from Indonesian school collapse rises to 65, search continues

JAKARTA – The death toll from the

collapse of a school in Indonesia

last week has climbed to 65 people as rescuers have cleared nearly all of the debris, authorities said on Oct 6, while rescuers continued to search for survivors under the rubble, seven days after the disaster.

Piles of concrete caved in on hundreds of mostly teenage boys on Sept 30 after the collapse of the Al Khoziny school in the Indonesian town of Sidoarjo, in East Java province, trapping and later killing them. Most managed to escape.

Mr Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said more bodies and body parts had been found, raising the confirmed death toll to 65.

It remained unclear how many people were still missing. Mr Syafii told reporters the search operation would continue until rescuers were “sure that no victims are left”.

Using excavators, rescuers late on Oct 5 cleared 80 per cent of the debris and found body parts of the mostly teenage victims, the agency’s statement said, adding that the search will continue for more victims.

Mr Budi Irawan, a deputy at the disaster mitigation agency, said a total of 50 people have died, based on the bodies recovered, and rescuers were expected to finish their search by the end of Oct 6 for 13 more trapped victims.

“The number of victims is the biggest this year from one building,” he told a press conference.

“Out of all the disasters in 2025, natural or not, there haven’t been as many dead victims as the ones in Sidoarjo.”

Mr Yudhi Bramantyo, a search and rescue agency official, said at the same news conference that five other body parts were found, indicating that the death toll is likely to be at least 54.

Rescuers are continuing their search, with video footage by the search and rescue agency showing recovery workers carrying orange body bags out of the ruins of the school.

The authorities have said the cause of the collapse was construction work on the upper floors that the school’s foundations could not support.

Across Indonesia, there are about 42,000 Islamic school buildings, known locally as pesantren, data from the country’s Religious Affairs Ministry shows.

Only 50 pesantren have building permits, Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo was quoted by the local media as saying on Oct 5.

It is not immediately clear if Al Khoziny had a building permit. Reuters could not immediately contact school authorities for comment. REUTERS