A building under construction at an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia collapsed on dozens of praying students Monday, killing at least one pupil, injuring dozens and burying others in the rubble, officials said.
Advertisement
Police, soldiers and rescuers dug into the debris through the night in attempts to locate at least three additional pupils believed to be trapped alive at Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the East Java town of Sidoarjo.
Rescuers also said they saw additional bodies, indicating the death toll was likely to rise.
The pupils were performing afternoon prayers in a building that was undergoing an unauthorised expansion when it suddenly collapsed on top of them, provincial police spokesman Jules Abraham Abast said.
One male pupil was killed and 83 others were injured and taken to two nearby hospitals, some of them in critical condition, officials said.
Advertisement
Most of the victims were male because female pupils were praying separately in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said. Residents, teachers and administrators helped injured pupils, many with head injuries and broken bones.
Authorities launched an investigation into the cause of the building’s collapse.