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The death count from a devastating school building collapse in Indonesia escalated to 14 on Friday as rescue teams retrieved several bodies from beneath the debris. Numerous of students are still missing and the number of casualties is expected to rise.

Search Operations Intensify as Hope Fades

Initially, emergency personnel searched by hand for survivors after the building caved in on Monday. However, after no more detections of survivors detected by Thursday, they turned to heavy excavators fitted with jackhammers to help them progress more rapidly.

Emergency workers labored in the blazing heat on Friday to break up and remove large slabs of concrete, with the odor of the deceased a somber reminder of what they would find underneath.

By the end of the day, they had recovered nine victims, bringing the confirmed death toll to 14, with nearly 50 students still unaccounted for.

Specifics of the Structural Failure

The building collapsed on top of many of people on Monday in a worship area at the historic Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo in East Java, about 780km (480 miles) east of Jakarta.

The head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Suharyanto, told the media at the scene on Friday that the recovery efforts were expected to be finished by the end of Saturday.

The students were mostly boys in classes seven to 12, aged from 12 and 19 years old. Girls were worshipping in a different section of the building and were able to get out safely, eyewitnesses said.

Eyewitness Testimony: Narrow Survival from the Rubble

Thirteen-year-old Rizalul Qoib, one of 104 those who escaped, came back to the site on Friday to look at what was remaining of his school, and said he was fortunate to have gotten out with only a small cut to his head.

He said, similar to his peers, he had been engaged in worship when he heard something like the sound of falling rocks, which got louder and louder.

“I ceased my prayers and ran when I felt the floor shaking,” he remembered. “All at once the building collapsed, the wreckage of the roof fell on my head, my face.”

Then the room went dark, but he heard someone yelling, “over here, this way” and he obeyed the sound until he eventually found a narrow gap in the rubble.

“I just went toward the light,” Qoib said.

Many of the others who were hurt but escaped or were saved suffered severe head injuries and fractures, and are still being treated in the medical facility.

Reason of the Disaster

Officials have stated the building was two floors, but two more levels were under construction without a permit. Law enforcement said the old building’s foundation seemingly was unable to support the additional weight and failed during the pouring process.

School officials have so far declined to speak.