The death toll from the collapse of a school in Indonesia has risen to 54, authorities said, with rescuers still searching for more than a dozen missing people.
Hundreds of students, most of them teenage boys, had gathered for prayers at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in East Java when it collapsed last Monday while undergoing construction.
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency states that this incident is the country's deadliest disaster this year. Rescuers are expected to complete their search for 13 victims trapped under the rubble by day’s end.
Investigators are still examining the cause of the collapse, with some officials indicating that the two-storey building might have caved in due to an unstable foundation.
Out of all the disasters in 2025, natural or not, there hasn't been as many dead victims as the ones in Sidoarjo, said Budi Irawan, a deputy at the disaster mitigation agency, in a press conference.
This devastating toll includes at least two individuals who were rescued from the debris but later succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.
Al Khoziny is categorized as a pesantren, a traditional Islamic boarding school in Indonesia. Many pesantren operate without strong regulatory oversight or consistent monitoring, and it remains unclear whether Al Khoziny had received the necessary permits to conduct construction.
Search and rescue operations have been hampered by the manner in which the building collapsed, creating only narrow voids for rescuers to navigate, as per authorities. Survivors have shared harrowing accounts of their escape.
Muhammad Rijalul Qoib, a 13-year-old student, recounted his experience to Detik News, stating he first heard the sound of falling rocks, which got louder and louder. He managed to flee the building, but not without sustaining wounds from the falling debris.
