Sidoarjo, Indonesia (AP). Rescuers wearing hard hats come together in strict concrete chippings excerpts, squeeze hand with hand tools to try to reach surviving days after they were stuck on Monday after the Islamic School Prayer Hall in Indonesia.
Some survivors interacted with the rescuers who tried to release them.
“How old are you, son?” The rescue team asked the student who was stuck.
“Sixteen,” he replied in a video released on Wednesday by the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency.
The student confirmed to the rescuers that he was not injured, but that his waist was stuck in the trash of the collapsed building.
“Be patient, okay? Haikal … where are you?” Rescuers reassured the elder student by shouting a 13-year-old boy.
“Yes! I’m here,” the haikal replied. When asked who hurt, he said, “My whole body.”
“Be patient, son … We’re trying to get you out now,” the rescuers said.
The 16-year-old and 13-year-old, along with three other students, were rescued on Wednesday after the tunnel was excavated about 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) below the base of the building to their location.
“Their conditions were better because they were detected yesterday. They could communicate from yesterday before their body was covered by concrete. We were able to provide food and drink support since Tuesday,” said Yudhi Bramantyo, deputy chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency operations.
The search was complicated by rubbish instability and heavy equipment was not used because of concern that it could fail even more.
Rescuers raced the clock to find survivors, and the number of missing people, mostly teen boys, continued to be reviewed.
Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, said Thursday morning that 59 people were still buried on rubble. The reviews were driven by various factors, such as some people, indicated as missing, confirmed that survived or was not at the scene when collapse occurred.
Killed also confirmed that on Thursday, five, not six, after a hospital data was checked, said Muhari.
Of the about 105 injured, more than two dozen are still hospitalized, many reported to have suffered head injuries and broken bones.
The structure on Monday fell on hundreds of people in the prayer hall, the Century Al Khoziny Islamic School in Sidoarj, the eastern side of the Indonesian Java Island.
Students were mostly boys from seven to 12th grade from 12 to 19 years.
The authorities said the building had two stories, but two more were added without permission. Police said the foundation of the old building could not support the two floors of the concrete and collapsed during the transfusion process.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of family members who were anxious about their loved ones were awaiting an international school, since they heard the event on Monday. They filled the school corridor with mattresses to sleep, provided by local authorities, with enough food, snacks and drinks.
“I can’t give up, I have to believe that my son is still alive, he is a hyperactive boy … He’s very strong,” said Hafiah, using one name.
Her son, Muhamed Abdurrohman, is 15 years old and in ninth grade.
She recalled that he ate his favorite Satay Rice with Gusto when she visited him on Sunday, the day before his friends said that her naphis had been hit.
She said the Nafi would graduate from the Al Khoziny Secondary School in a few months and wants to continue his education at mechanical engineering high school.
“I couldn’t get closer to him … Maybe he was starving, hurt, but I couldn’t help him,” Hafiah said, “I can’t give up because the rescue team is currently trying to help our children.”
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Associated Press journalists Fadlan Syam and Achmad Ibrahim Sidoarjo, Indonesia, contributed to this report.