Catastrophe Deepens as Indonesia Educational Institution Structural Failure Fatalities Increases to 54
News Agency
The death count from the structural failure of an Indonesian school has climbed to 54, as confirmed by officials, with emergency responders continuing their search for more than a dozen missing individuals.
Hundreds students, mostly adolescent males, had assembled for religious services at the religious educational institution in Eastern Java when the building collapsed while undergoing construction.
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency characterizes this as the country's most fatal disaster this year. Rescue personnel are anticipated to conclude their search operation for 13 victims ensnared under debris by day's end.
Probe Ongoing into Collapse Cause
Authorities are still examining the reason behind the structural failure. Certain authorities indicated the two-level structure caved in due to an unstable foundation.
"Among all the catastrophes in 2025, natural or not, there has not occurred as many dead victims as the incident in Sidoarjo," stated a deputy from the emergency management authority during a press conference.
The total count encompasses at least two individuals who were extracted from the debris but later succumbed in hospital.
School Background and Oversight Issues
The facility is a conventional religious educational center in Indonesia, commonly known as a pesantren.
Numerous Islamic schools function informally, without strong regulation or consistent monitoring. It remains unclear whether the school had proper authorization to conduct additional construction.
Operational Difficulties
Search and rescue operations have proven challenging due to the manner the structure fell, leaving only narrow voids for rescuers to operate within, officials stated previously.
Survivor Accounts
Those who escaped have shared their harrowing escape experiences with local media.
One teenage survivor recalled first "hearing the noise of collapsing materials", which "intensified and louder".
The adolescent immediately ran for the exit, and while he successfully got out, he was injured by falling debris from the roof.
