Indonesian school collapse death toll hits 54 with 80% of debris cleared

The death toll from the collapse of a school in Indonesia last week has climbed to 54 people as rescuers have cleared nearly all of the debris, rescue authorities said on Monday, in the country's deadliest disaster this year, Report informs referring to the South China Morning Post.

Piles of concrete caved in on hundreds of mostly teenage boys after the collapse of the Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in the Indonesian town of Sidoarjo, in East Java province, trapping and later killing them.

Using excavators, rescuers late on Sunday cleared 80 per cent of the debris and found bodies and body parts of the mostly teenage victims, the disaster mitigation agency said in a statement.

Budi Irawan, a deputy at the disaster mitigation agency, said a total of 50 people have died based on the bodies recovered.

Rescuers were expected to finish their search by the end of Monday for 13 more trapped victims, he added.

"The number of victims is the biggest this year from one building," he told a press conference. "Out of all the disasters in 2025, natural or not, there haven't been as many dead victims as the ones in Sidoarjo."

Yudhi Bramantyo, a search and rescue agency official, said at the same news conference on Monday that five other body parts were found, indicating the death toll is likely at least 54 people.

Rescuers are continuing their search, with footage shared by the search and rescue agency showing recovery workers carrying orange body bags out of the ruins of the school.

"We hope we can conclude the recovery today, and we will return the bodies [to the families]," Yudhi said.

The families of the missing agreed on Thursday for heavy equipment to be used after the 72-hour "golden period" for the best chance of survival came to an end.

Authorities have said the cause of the collapse was construction work on the upper floors that the school's foundations could not support.

Across Indonesia, there are about 42,000 Islamic schools, known locally as pesantren, data from the country's religious affairs ministry shows.