Indonesia earthquake slows efforts to rescue those trapped by school collapse

1/10/2025 17:42

Rescuers battling to extricate students from the rubble of an Islamic school that collapsed, killing three in Indonesia's province of East Java, faced a harder task on Wednesday after an earthquake that authorities fear packed the debris tighter.



Authorities said 91 people were listed as missing, with 100 evacuated and dozens injured after the collapse during students' late afternoon prayers in a mosque on the lower floor of a building whose upper floors were still under construction.



Tuesday's quake of magnitude 6.5 reduced the space for the people still trapped, complicating the task of rescue by narrowing the room for manoeuvre, said Emi Frizer, an official of Indonesia's search and rescue agency.



Disaster officials said three people died in the collapse of the boarding school in the town of Sidoarjo, about 780 km (480 miles) east of Jakarta, the capital.