Parents grow desperate as search continues at collapsed Indonesian boarding school

SIDOARJO, East Java (Reuters) – Rescue efforts stretched into a third day on Wednesday at a collapsed Islamic boarding school in Indonesia as anxious parents waited for news of their children feared trapped under the rubble.

Authorities said 91 people were listed as missing, after the Al Khoziny school building collapsed on Monday while pupils held late afternoon prayers in a mosque housed on a lower floor of a building whose upper floors were under construction. The boarding school is in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, about 780 km (480 miles) east of Jakarta.

By late evening on Tuesday, three bodies had been recovered, with the vast majority of presumed victims still trapped under huge slabs of concrete. Ninety-nine children and workers at the school survived.

An excavator and a crane had been deployed to help rescuers shift the rubble, but Nanang Sigit, a local search and rescue official, said authorities would not use heavy equipment for fear of causing the remaining structure to collapse.

“They should clear the rubble as soon as possible,” said Sholahuddin, 46, whose 15-year-old son Suhaibi is among the missing. “There's so many of us, the parents and guardians, who want to help, but we haven't reached a deal with the SAR team,” he said, breaking into tears.