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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/2/no-signs-of-life-hopes-turn-to-anguish-in-indonesia-school-collapse
No signs of life’: Hopes turn to anguish in Indonesia school collapse
Some families say they’re still holding out hope their loved ones are alive as authorities shift to recovery operation.
Rescuers walk to the site where a building under construction collapsed at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia
Rescuers walk to the site where a building under construction collapsed at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, on October 2, 2025 [Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo]
By Aisyah Llewellyn
Published On 2 Oct 2025
2 Oct 2025
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Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia – Hopes for dozens of students feared trapped in rubble at a collapsed boarding school have turned to anguish as authorities shift their focus from rescue to recovery.
Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, told a news conference on Thursday that thermal drones and other equipment had found “no additional signs of life” at Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School.
Relatives of the missing students collapsed in the streets around the site and wailed in anguish upon hearing the news.
Authorities said they would bring in heavy machinery to assist in recovery efforts.
Until now, they had resisted bringing in excavators to clear the debris for fear of harming anyone trapped alive.
Authorities have sealed off the school, which officials say collapsed as construction workers were laying concrete on the building’s fourth floor, as rescuers continue to painstakingly pick through the debris for the 59 people believed missing.
But even hundreds of metres from the scene, the smell of decomposing bodies was overwhelming.
Police tape around the site of the school collapse in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, on October 2, 2025 [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera]
No signs of life’: Hopes turn to anguish in Indonesia school collapse
Some families say they’re still holding out hope their loved ones are alive as authorities shift to recovery operation.
Rescuers walk to the site where a building under construction collapsed at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia
Rescuers walk to the site where a building under construction collapsed at a boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, on October 2, 2025 [Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo]
By Aisyah Llewellyn
Published On 2 Oct 2025
2 Oct 2025
Click here to share on social media
Share
Save
Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia – Hopes for dozens of students feared trapped in rubble at a collapsed boarding school have turned to anguish as authorities shift their focus from rescue to recovery.
Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, told a news conference on Thursday that thermal drones and other equipment had found “no additional signs of life” at Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School.
Relatives of the missing students collapsed in the streets around the site and wailed in anguish upon hearing the news.
Authorities said they would bring in heavy machinery to assist in recovery efforts.
Until now, they had resisted bringing in excavators to clear the debris for fear of harming anyone trapped alive.
Authorities have sealed off the school, which officials say collapsed as construction workers were laying concrete on the building’s fourth floor, as rescuers continue to painstakingly pick through the debris for the 59 people believed missing.
But even hundreds of metres from the scene, the smell of decomposing bodies was overwhelming.
Police tape around the site of the school collapse in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, on October 2, 2025 [Aisyah Llewellyn/Al Jazeera]
