At least 50 people have been confirmed dead after an Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school collapsed in Indonesia’s East Java province last week, rescue officials said on Monday, describing it as the nation’s most fatal disaster of 2025 so far.
The accident occurred in Sidoarjo town where piles of concrete came crashing down on hundreds of students- mostly teenage boys-trapping many beneath the rubble.
According to the The National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana, BNPB), rescuers have now cleared about 80% of the debris using heavy machinery.
Most of the recovered bodies were found late Sunday, and search operations for the remaining 13 missing individuals are expected to conclude by the end of Monday.
Budi Irawan, a deputy at the disaster mitigation agency, told a press conference, “The number of victims is the biggest this year from one building.”
“Out of all the disasters in 2025, natural or not, there hasn’t been as many dead victims as the ones in Sidoarjo.”
Yudhi Bramantyo, an official from the national search and rescue agency, said additional human remains were recovered, suggesting the final death toll could exceed 50.
Video footage released by the agency showed rescuers carrying orange body bags from the rubble as the operation continued through the night.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the upper floors of the building were under construction, placing excessive pressure on the structure’s foundation. Officials said the weak support base likely caused the collapse.
Indonesia has an estimated 42,000 Islamic boarding schools, known locally as pesantren, according to the Ministry of Religious Affairs. However, only around 50 of them hold proper building permits, Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo told local media on Sunday.
It remains unclear whether the Al Khoziny school had such a permit. Reuters could not immediately contact school authorities for comment.
Authorities are now focusing on recovery and identification efforts as the country mourns one of its most tragic building failures in recent years.
