Rescuers chip away debris with hand tools to save those trapped in Indonesia school collapse

SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) – Rescuers wearing hard hats crawled into tight passages of concrete rubble, chipping away debris with hand tools to try to reach survivors days after they were trapped in Monday’s collapse of an Islamic school’s prayer hall in Indonesia.

Some of the survivors were communicating with the rescuers working to free them.

“How old are you, son?” a team of rescuers asked a student who was trapped.

“Sixteen,” he replied, in a video released Wednesday by Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency.

The student confirmed to the rescuers that he was not hurt but his torso was stuck in the debris of the collapsed building.

“Be patient, OK? Haikal… where are you?” the rescuers reassured the older student while calling out to a 13-year-old boy.

“Yes! I’m here,” Haikal responded. When asked what hurt, he said: My whole body.”

“Be patient, son… we’re trying to get you out now,” the rescuers said.

The 16-year-old and 13-year-old, along with three other students, were rescued Wednesday after a tunnel was dug about 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) below the base of the building to their location.

“Their conditions were better as they were detected yesterday. They can communicate since yesterday while their bodies are covered by concrete. We have been able to provide food and drink support since Tuesday,” said Yudhi Bramantyo, deputy chief of operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency.

The search has been complicated by the instability of the debris, and heavy equipment was not being used due to concerns it could cause further collapse.

Rescuers were racing the clock to find survivors, with the number of missing people, mostly teen boys, continuing to be revised.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said in a statement Thursday morning that 59 people are still buried in the rubble. The revisions were due to various factors, such as some people listed as missing confirmed to have survived or to have not been at the scene when the collapse occurred.

The death toll was also confirmed Thursday to be five, not six, after data from hospitals were verified, Muhari said.

Of about 105 injured, more than two dozen are still hospitalized, with many said to have suffered head injuries and broken bones.

The structure fell on top of hundreds of people Monday in the prayer hall at the century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, on the eastern side of Indonesia’s Java island.

The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between ages 12 and 19.

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.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds of family members who anxiously awaited news of their loved ones at the boarding school since they heard the incident on Monday. They filled the school’s corridors with mattresses to sleep provided by local government with sufficient food, snacks and drinks.

“I can’t give up, I have to believe that my son is still alive, he is a hyperactive boy… he is very strong,” said Hafiah, who uses one name.

Her son, Muhammad Abdurrohman Nafis, is 15 and in the ninth grade.

She recalled that he ate his favorite satay rice with gusto when she visited him Sunday, a day before his friends told her Nafis had been hit in the collapse.

She said Nafis is to graduate from al Khoziny’s junior high school in a few months and wants to continue his education at a mechanical engineering high school.

“I couldn’t get close to him… maybe he was starving, in pain, but I couldn’t help him,” Hafiah said, ” “I can’t give up as the rescue team is currently trying to help our children out.”

___

Associated Press journalists Fadlan Syam and Achmad Ibrahim in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, contributed to this report.