A 13-year-old boy is among three students confirmed to have died when the Al Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in East Java, Indonesia, suddenly collapsed on Monday.
This is even as dozens of students are feared to be still buried under the rubble of a collapsed school building.
Rescuers are running oxygen to those under the debris and working desperately to free any survivors trapped in the unstable concrete leftovers of the school in East Java, more than 12 hours after the structure fell.
The number of dead is expected to rise, as many of those injured are in a critical condition, SKY NEWS reports.
Hundreds of rescue workers, police and soldiers digging through the night, pulled out eight weak and injured survivors.
About 38 are thought to still be under the rubble – mostly boys aged between 12 and 17.
Rescue efforts had to be temporarily suspended on Tuesday as the collapsed concrete shook suddenly, indicating another collapse could be imminent.
People ran for their lives, some screaming, as rescuers urged everyone in the area to avoid the building, including more than a dozen ambulances parked near the scene.
A notice board at the command post set up in the boarding school complex listed all the missing students.
A mother, seeing her child’s name listed, cried hysterically: “Oh my God… my son is still buried, oh my God please help!”
“Please, sir, please find my child immediately,” cried a father, holding the hand of one of the rescue team members.
Chief search and rescue officer, Nanang Sigit, said: “We have been running oxygen and water to those still trapped under the debris and keeping them alive while we work hard to get them out.”
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Rescuers in East Java, Indonesia are racing to find 38 people believed to be trapped in the rubble of a school building that collapsed on Monday
Three students were killed and 99 others were taken to hospital, some of them with critical injuries, officials say, adding that the death toll may rise
Many of those who are trapped are teenage boys who had gathered for prayers when the building collapsed
The two-storey building had an unstable foundation and could not support the weight of the additional construction of two more floors, officials say.
