Indonesia ends search for victims of school collapse with at least 61 dead

Officials halt hunt astatine al-Khoziny schoolhouse aft clearing debris and determining nary much bodies to beryllium found.

Indonesia has halted the hunt for bodies astatine a collapsed Islamic boarding schoolhouse aft retrieving much than 60, officials said.

The National Search and Rescue Agency announced connected Tuesday that the teams were stepping down aft much than a week of efforts to retrieve victims trapped beneath the rubble astatine the al-Khoziny school.

Parts of the schoolhouse successful the municipality of Sidoarjo, East Java, caved in connected September 29 portion the students were astatine day prayers.

“Entering the 9th day, we person concluded the hunt and rescue cognition for the victims,” the caput of the rescue bureau (Basarnas), Mohammad Syafii, told a quality conference.

He said the authorities person cleared each the debris from the tract and determined nary further bodies would beryllium found.

The bodies of astatine slightest 61 radical successful the gathering person been found, arsenic good arsenic 7 assemblage parts, the bureau said. Other unconfirmed reports suggest arsenic galore arsenic 67 radical died.

Of the bodies recovered from the site, lone 17 person been identified truthful far, according to the police’s Disaster Victim Identification unit.

Severed limbs are among the assemblage parts discovered, said Budi Irawan, lawman main of the National Disaster Agency.

More than 100 radical survived the disaster, the agency’s operations director, Yudhi Bramantyo, said.

The schoolhouse illness was Indonesia’s deadliest catastrophe truthful acold this year, according to the National Disaster Agency.

Frantic search

The rescue effort progressive responders digging tunnels and calling retired to the missing successful a bid to find survivors. There were immoderate singular successes. Thirteen-year-old Selendra Haikal Rakaditya was pulled retired connected a stretcher 72 hours aft the disaster.

The extremity of the cognition followed a determination by families of the missing connected Thursday to let dense machinery to beryllium utilized to wide rubble from the tract and retrieve bodies.

That determination was made aft the 72-hour “golden period” for the champion accidental of endurance came to an end.

Cause nether investigation

Investigators person been examining the origin of the collapse. According to experts, archetypal indications suggest that substandard operation was a factor.

Work connected an unauthorised hold of the schoolhouse had been taking spot for weeks, according to reports, with builders pouring factual connected 2 precocious floors.

Poor operation standards person raised wide concerns astir gathering information successful Indonesia.

Al-Khoziny is 1 of much than 42,000 accepted Islamic boarding schools, known arsenic pesantren, successful Indonesia, lone 50 of which person a gathering permit, according to the Ministry of Public Works.