‘It seems impossible’: Mother’s hope for son’s life dims after Indonesia school collapse

SIDOARJO, Indonesia - The anxiety gripped Ms Jayanti Mandasari as soon as she got off the phone with her son Muhfi Alfian on Sept 29.

A generous boy, he had called to ask for money to treat his friends to some snacks. Despite the light-hearted nature of the call, she could not shake off her unexplained fears.

Those fears were confirmed when a younger sibling told her that the Islamic boarding school Alfian attended, Al Khoziny,

had collapsed during afternoon prayers

, killing at least 13 people and trapping dozens of students and several workers in the remains of the school in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, located about 660km east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

Rescuers said the search for survivors was continuing on Oct 3, even though they found no signs of life on Oct 2 as they called out students’ names through tunnels inside the remains and used sensors to detect vital signs.

“I was shocked, my God,” Ms Jayanti, 43, told Reuters on Oct 2, while being consoled by her sister Hamida Soetadji at a waiting centre near the school. “I couldn't hold back my tears.”

Ms Jayanti was among the scores of parents holding their breath for news about their children near a whiteboard where a list of survivors was posted.

Her hope is dimming that emergency workers will find her son alive.

“Right now, it seems impossible. Maybe God took him gently. And I accept,” she said, starting to cry.

The authorities said the school collapsed because its foundations could not support ongoing construction work on the upper floors.

School management should have anticipated something like that, Ms Hamida said.

There are 42,000 such schools across Indonesia, known locally as “pesantren”, serving about seven million students, data from Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Ministry shows.

Ms Jayanti said she is so traumatised that she will not be sending her other children to the school. REUTERS