Indonesian rescue authorities yesterday made the tough decision to start using heavy machinery to move large sections of a collapsed school, with no more signs of life from beneath the rubble and nearly 60 teenage students still unaccounted for three days after the building caved in.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs Pratikno told reporters on the scene in Sidoarjo that the decision had been made in consultation with the families of those still missing.
Five students were rescued on Wednesday by workers who tunneled into the rubble using hand tools.
Photo: EPA
Work would proceed with extreme caution even though no more signs of life could be detected, Pratikno said yesterday.
“In any case, we will be very, very careful when using the heavy machines,” said Pratikno, who only goes by one name as is common in Indonesia.
The structure fell on top of hundreds of people on Monday in the prayer hall at the century-old al-Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, on the eastern side of Java island.
Authorities have said the building was two stories, but two more were being added without a permit.
Police said the old building’s foundation was apparently unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process.
Five people have been confirmed killed so far, and of about 105 who were injured, more than two dozen are still hospitalized, with many said to have sustained head injuries and broken bones.
The students were mostly boys in grades 7 to 12, aged 12 to 19. Female students were praying in another part of the building and escaped, survivors said.
Most rescues typically happen within 24 hours after such disasters, with chances of survival decreasing steadily as time progresses.
Nearly 220 workers were on the scene yesterday with ambulances on hand ready to take any survivors to hospital.
However, authorities also brought in large quantities of body bags, a tacit acknowledgement that the odds of finding anyone left alive were rapidly diminishing.
“We are no longer considering the possibility of survivors remaining, but we will still proceed with caution, said Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, who also goes by one name.
The numbers of missing have fluctuated widely over the course of the three-day recovery effort, and Suharyanto said that authorities are still not certain how many students might be buried, having made their estimate based on school attendance figures and information from families.
“We really hope that these 59 people are not there under the rubble,” he said. “It happened previously that parents reported their children missing, but turned out that their children were somewhere else — I do hope and pray that they are not there.”
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