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A massive rescue effort is underway in Sidoarjo after a building at the Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School suddenly collapsed during afternoon prayers on Monday, September 29, 2025, leaving dozens of students trapped beneath debris. Number of people are missing leaving their kins in tears and pain.
Authorities confirmed the death of a 13-year-old student, while 99 others were injured, several of them critically. The number of missing remains uncertain, with a command post noticeboard listing 65 students unaccounted for as of Tuesday morning. Provincial police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast said teams are in constant coordination with school administrators to verify the exact number of victims still believed to be under the rubble.
The collapsed structure was a prayer hall undergoing an unauthorized expansion. According to Abdus Salam Mujib, one of the heads of the school, the original building had two stories but was being expanded to have four floors with a flat roof.
The collapse occurred while workers were pouring concrete for the third floor. Police spokesperson Abast stated that the old building's foundation was "apparently unable to support two floors of concrete" that were being added without a permit. The lower floor was already in use as a prayer room when the disaster struck.
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Rescuers comprising police, soldiers, and search and rescue personnel worked through the night. They have pulled out eight injured survivors and are running oxygen and water to those still trapped beneath the unstable concrete slabs. Efforts are being hampered by the dangerous instability of the rubble, which has prevented the full use of heavy equipment.
However, rescuers face major challenges. The fragility of the debris makes heavy machinery too risky to use, forcing manual efforts in dangerous conditions.
This tragic incident highlights growing concerns about lax construction standards and building safety across Indonesia. The collapse comes just weeks after another structural failure on the main island of Java. In West Java’s Bogor district, a community hall collapsed earlier in September during a Quran recital, killing at least three people and injuring dozens. The proximity of these incidents underscores the urgent need for stricter technical supervision and compliance with construction safety standards for multi-storey buildings nationwide.
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