Indonesia ends search for victims of boarding school collapse, 61 dead

JAKARTA: Indonesian rescuers wrapped up the search on Tuesday for victims trapped under the rubble of a collapsed Islamic boarding school in the province of East Java, after retrieving more than 60 bodies, disaster authorities said.

Grief and confusion gripped the small town of Sidoarjo last week after foundational failures caused the Al Khoziny school to cave in on hundreds of people, mostly teenage boys, while they were at afternoon prayers. Most escaped.

The bodies of all 61 people in the building have been found, as well as seven body parts that police are trying to identify, the disaster mitigation agency said in a statement, halting the search effort in a disaster it had called the year’s deadliest.

“Operations due to the collapsed structure of the Al Khoziny school … are officially closed,” said Mohammad Syafii, chief of the search and rescue agency, after authorities cleared away the debris.

Severed limbs are among the parts being identified, said Budi Irawan, the agency’s deputy chief.

Rescuers had used excavators and cranes to lift large chunks of concrete. Digging through tunnels, they shouted out the names of victims presumed to be still alive.

Al Khoziny is one of more than 42,000 such schools nationwide, known as pesantren, just 50 of which have a building permit, the public works ministry has said.

Reuters could not determine whether Al Khoziny had a permit, or reach school authorities.

Media quoted Sidoarjo chief Subandi as saying last week it allegedly lacked one.