The death toll from last week’s collapse of an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia has climbed to 54, authorities confirmed, as rescue teams continue searching for more than a dozen people still unaccounted for.
Hundreds of students, mostly teenage boys, were gathered for prayers at the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in East Java when the building suddenly gave way on Monday during ongoing construction work.
Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency described the tragedy as the country’s deadliest incident of 2025. Officials said rescuers hope to conclude operations by the end of the day as they work to recover 13 people believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.
The exact cause of the collapse remains under investigation, though early reports suggest the two-storey structure may have fallen 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, during a press briefing.
Authorities said the confirmed toll includes at least two victims who were rescued alive but later died in hospital.
Al Khoziny, a well-known pesantren, or traditional Islamic boarding school, is one of many such institutions in Indonesia that operate with limited regulation.
It is not yet clear whether the school had obtained official approval for its construction work.
Rescue efforts have been complicated by the way the building collapsed, leaving only narrow spaces for teams to crawl through, officials said.
Survivors have recounted terrifying moments as the structure crumbled.
“I heard the sound of falling rocks,” 13-year-old Muhammad Rijalul Qoib told Detik News. “It got louder and louder.”
The young student said he sprinted toward the exit and managed to escape, though he sustained injuries from falling debris as the roof gave way.
