Death Toll Rises to 36 in Indonesia: Search for Bodies Continues
The school was under construction, and that may have made the building weak.
Oct 5, 2025 / GMT+6
A school building in Indonesia collapsed while students were praying, and sadly, 36 children died. Many others are still missing, and rescue teams are working hard to find them.
Some students were found alive, but many were hurt and taken to the hospital. It’s hard to identify some of the bodies because they didn’t have ID cards and were badly injured. The rescuers are using machines and digging through the rubble carefully, hoping to find more survivors.
Efforts continued for a seventh consecutive day to locate the remains of 27 students who are still reported missing - predominantly teenage boys aged between 13 and 19 - trapped under the debris.
Cranes were utilized to remove rubble, and the search and evacuation operations were reported to be 60% complete. It is expected that all debris will be cleared and the search concluded by Monday.
The Al Khoziny school, located in the town of Sidoarjo in East Java province, collapsed last Monday, falling upon hundreds of teenage students during afternoon prayers, as its foundations were unable to sustain the ongoing construction activities on its upper levels.
On Friday, after failing to uncover any signs of life in earlier efforts, rescuers received the parents' permission to utilize heavy equipment.
Rescuers excavated through tunnels within the remnants of the structure, calling out the boys' names and employing sensors to detect any movement, yet they found no indications of life.
