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The number of fatalities from a catastrophic structural failure at an educational institution in Indonesia climbed to 14 on Friday as emergency crews pulled several victims from beneath the rubble. Dozens of students remain unaccounted for and the death toll is expected to rise.

Rescue Efforts Intensify as Survivor Search Narrows

Initially, emergency personnel searched by hand for those trapped alive after the structure collapsed on Monday. But with no more signs of life detected by Thursday, they began using heavy excavators fitted with demolition tools to help them progress more rapidly.

Crews worked in the hot sun on Friday to demolish and clear large slabs of concrete, with the smell of the deceased a grim reminder of what they would find underneath.

By the end of the day, they had recovered nine bodies, raising the official death toll to 14, with nearly 50 students still unaccounted for.

Details of the Collapse

The structure collapsed on top of hundreds of people on Monday in a worship area at the historic Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo in East Java, about 780km (480 miles) east of Jakarta.

The head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Suharyanto, told the media at the scene on Friday that the retrieval operation were expected to be complete by the end of Saturday.

The students were primarily boys in classes seven to 12, aged from 12 and 19 years old. Female students were worshipping in a different section of the building and managed to escape, survivors said.

Eyewitness Testimony: Escape from the Rubble

Thirteen-year-old Rizalul Qoib, one of 104 those who escaped, came back to the scene on Friday to look at what was remaining of his school, and said he was lucky to have gotten out with only a minor gash to his head.

He said, like the others, he had been praying when he heard something like the sound of falling rocks, which got increasingly intense.

“I stopped praying and ran when I felt the floor shaking,” he remembered. “Suddenly the building collapsed, the wreckage of the roof fell on my head, my face.”

Then the room became pitch black, but he heard someone yelling, “this way, this way” and he obeyed the sound until he eventually found a small opening in the rubble.

“I just went toward the light,” Qoib said.

A significant number of the others who were injured but escaped or were rescued suffered serious head trauma and fractures, and are continuing to receive care in the medical facility.

Cause of the Disaster

Officials have said the building was two floors, but two more levels were being added lacking authorization. Law enforcement said the old building’s foundation apparently was unable to support the extra floors and collapsed during the pouring process.

School officials have so far declined to speak.