Rescue teams in the Indonesian province of East Java pulled five people alive from the rubble of a collapsed Islamic school on the third day of rescue operations, which are being carried out using hand tools because the risk of using heavy equipment is too great, DPA reported, citing officials, BTA reported.
Nearly 60 people, most of them children aged between 13 and 18, are still missing, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency said, raising fears that the collapse could become one of the deadliest construction accidents in Indonesia in recent years.
The number of confirmed victims reached five after rescue teams yesterday Two bodies were pulled from the rubble. Three people were previously reported dead.
The multi-storey Al Hosini School building in Sidoarjo, East Java, collapsed while workers were pouring concrete to build an additional floor. About 100 students were on the second floor for afternoon prayers when the collapse occurred. Witnesses said the building began to sway and crackle shortly before the tragedy, before collapsing in a matter of seconds.
Five people pulled alive from the rubble were rescued yesterday, but one remains in critical condition, Indonesia's National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said today.
Rescue teams are continuing their intensive search in an attempt to reach at least one more person, who is believed to be still alive but is deep in the rubble of the collapsed building.
To prevent further collapse, teams avoided using cranes and heavy equipment, instead digging tunnels less than 60cm wide with hand tools, which they crawled through.
"Using heavy equipment is too risky due to the instability of the ruins," Muhari said. "If there are signs of life, our teams will continue to dig by hand, even if it takes much longer," he added.
Around 100 people survived the collapse, many of them still in hospital.