Death toll from Indonesia school building collapse rises to 45

ISTANBUL

The death toll from a collapsed school building in Indonesia’s East Java province rose to 45 on Sunday, as rescue teams retrieved more bodies from the rubble.

According to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), rescuers retrieved another 19 victims from the rubble on Sunday, raising the death toll to 45, up from a toll of 37 earlier in the day.

Basarnas' operations director Yudhi Bramantyo told reporters that the total number of victims rescuers have evacuated are 149, with 45 reported dead, and 104 survivors.

This lowered the number of missing persons to 18, though the figure remains uncertain, based on the student attendance list provided by the Islamic boarding school.

Over 60% of the debris has been cleared, but teams faced obstacles, including a piece of concrete connected to a neighboring building.

Abdul Muhari, head of the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure's (BNPB) Disaster Data, Information and Communication Center, said 167 students were affected, of whom 104 have been found safe. Fourteen survivors are receiving treatment at hospitals, 89 have been discharged, and one has been transferred to another facility.

Hundreds of students, mostly teenage boys, were inside the Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the town of Sidoarjo when it collapsed on Monday, killing at least five students initially and injuring around 100.

*Contributions by Aamir Latif in Karachi