Jakarta (ANTARA) - The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has found and evacuated 26 bodies of students trapped under the rubble of the collapsed Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School in Sidoarjo District, East Java, as of Saturday evening (October 4).
Basarnas Operations Director Yudhi Bramantyo said on Sunday that 21 of the 26 bodies have not yet been identified.
"As of now, a total of 130 victims have been recovered, consisting of 104 survivors and 26 deceased," he stated.
According to him, the search process has been carried out around the clock. On Saturday night, a joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team managed to evacuate 12 more victims from the ruins.
A Basarnas emergency post team reported that the 31st victim, the fourth body recovered that day, was evacuated from sector A1 at 9:15 p.m. About an hour later, three more bodies were found nearby in sector A3.
The search continued in sector A3, where the 34th body was discovered at 10:46 p.m., followed by the 35th, 36th, and 37th bodies at 10:57 p.m., 10:59 p.m., and 11:01 p.m., respectively.
At the same location, the team also found two additional bodies: the 38th at 11:26 p.m. and the 39th at 11:29 p.m.
Basarnas confirmed that search and rescue operations are still ongoing, involving hundreds of joint personnel, as several victims remain missing and most of the bodies have yet to be identified.
The Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School building in Sidoarjo District collapsed on September 29, 2025, while hundreds of students were performing prayers in the ground-floor prayer room.
The East Java Basarnas office received the first report at around 3:35 p.m. local time, while concrete work had been underway since the morning.
On Thursday (October 2), the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) decided to deploy heavy equipment to assist in evacuating victims from the site.
Before the decision was made, the agency conducted three field assessments from Wednesday to Thursday to detect any signs of life.
Based on the results, Basarnas concluded that there were no signs of life among the trapped victims.
