At least 65 students are believed to be buried under rubble after an Islamic school building collapsed in Indonesia, AP has re -drafted. The incident happened in the eastern Java city of Sidoarjo. AP cited rescue workers and said that the body of a person who died in the collapse was restored, while fearing the death toll was likely to rise. Students had prayers in the school building, which underwent a unauthorise expansion, when it suddenly collapsed on them, the publication cited a local police spokesman. 99 Injured students have been taken to hospitals so far. Most of the victims were male because female students prayed separately in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said. Residents, teachers and administrators assisted injured students, much with head injuries and broken legs. The authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the building’s collapse. The police spokesman said the old prayer hall was originally only two floors, but that it was renovated by adding two more floors without a permit to build a new structure. Rescue measures heavy plates of concrete and other debris and unstable parts of the building has hampered search and rescue efforts, says Nanang Sigit, who made the effort. “We ran oxygen and water to those who are still trapped under the rubble and kept them alive while we work hard to get them out,” Sigit told the publication, adding that rescue workers saw several bodies under the rubble, but that they focused on rescuing those who were still alive. Some hundreds of rescue workers, including independent breathing apparatus equipped with extreme, medical evacuation and other equipment for rescue operations, continue to search for bodies in a uninterrupted operation, and where possible survivors. Families meet in hospitals a relative of a victim of a collapsed building responds after a hall collapsed while students prayed at the Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia on September 30, 2025. Family members cry as they watch rescue workers pull a dusty, injured student out of a buried ward. With AP inputs
65 dreaded trapped, at least 1 dead in the collapse of the school building in Indonesia
