By Johan Purnomo SIDOARJO, Indonesia (Reuters) -The anxiety gripped Jayanti Mandasari as soon as she got off the phone with her son M. Muhfi Alfian on Monday. A generous boy, he had called to ask for money to treat his friends to some snacks. Despite the light-hearted nature of the call, she could not shake […]
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‘It seems impossible’: Mother’s hope for son’s life dims after Indonesia school collapse
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By Johan Purnomo
SIDOARJO, Indonesia (Reuters) -The anxiety gripped Jayanti Mandasari as soon as she got off the phone with her son M. Muhfi Alfian on Monday.
A generous boy, he had called to ask for money to treat his friends to some snacks. Despite the light-hearted nature of the call, she could not shake off her unexplained fears.
Those fears were confirmed when a younger sibling told her the Islamic boarding school Alfian attended, Al Khoziny, had collapsed during afternoon prayers, killing at least five people and trapping dozens of students and several workers in the rubble.
About 60 people, including Alfian, who has not been declared dead by officials, remained trapped under the remains of the school in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, located about 660 km (410 miles) east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Rescuers said the search for survivors is continuing on Friday, even though they found no signs of life on Thursday as they called out students’ names through tunnels inside the remains and used sensors to detect vital signs.
“I was shocked, my God,” Jayanti, 43, told Reuters on Thursday, while being consoled by her sister Hamida Soetadji at a waiting centre near the school. “I couldn’t hold back my tears.”
Jayanti was among the scores of parents holding their breath for news about their children near a whiteboard where a list of survivors was posted.
Her hope is dimming that emergency workers will find her son alive.
“Right now, it seems impossible. Maybe God took him gently. And I accept,” she said, starting to cry.
Authorities said the school collapsed because its foundations could not support ongoing construction work on the upper floors.
School management should have anticipated something like that, Hamida said.
There are 42,000 such schools across Indonesia, known locally as a pesantren, serving about 7 million students, data from Indonesia’s religious affairs ministry shows.
Jayanti said she is so traumatised she will not be sending her other children to the school.
(Reporting by Johan Purnomo and Prasto Wardoyo in Sidoarjo; Writing by Ananda Teresia amd Stanley Widianto; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)