JAKARTA: The number of students confirmed dead after the collapse of an Islamic boarding school building in Indonesia rose to 36, from 16 a day earlier, the country's disaster mitigation agency said on Sunday.
Efforts continued for a seventh day to search for the bodies of 27 students still declared missing - mostly teenage boys from the ages of 13 to 19 - trapped under the rubble, the agency said.
Cranes were deployed to excavate debris and search and evacuation efforts were 60% complete, according to the agency, which said it expected to clear all debris and finish the search on Monday.
The Al Khoziny school in the town of Sidoarjo in East Java province caved in last Monday, collapsing on top of hundreds of teenage students during afternoon prayers, its foundations unable to support ongoing construction work on its upper floors.
On Friday, rescuers received the parents' permission to make use of heavy equipment after failing to find signs of life during previous efforts.
Rescuers dug through tunnels in the remains of the building, calling out the boys' names and using sensors to detect any movement, but found no signs of life.
Al Khoziny is an Islamic boarding school known locally as a pesantren.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has about 42,000 pesantren serving 7 million students, according to religious affairs ministry data.
Indonesia school collapse death toll rises to 36, search for bodies continues
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Indonesia school collapse death toll rises to 36, search for bodies continues
- Efforts continued for a seventh day to search for the bodies of 27 students still declared missing
Pro-Palestinian activists stopped from disrupting Milan Cortina Olympics torch relay
- A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza
ROME: Two groups of pro-Palestinian activists were prevented by authorities from coming into contact with the opening stages of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics torch relay, Italian police said on Saturday.
Both groups — one of them with about 15 people — were removed before they reached the relay route in Rome, police said.
A third group of about 10 people that was monitored by police waved Palestinian flags when the relay passed by the city’s biggest university, La Sapienza.
There were also three people carrying signs in support of Venezuela near the American embassy.
In October, more than two million demonstrators marched through more than 100 Italian cities to protest the war in Gaza.
Olympic champion swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri began the relay in the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi and the torch was carried for 33 kilometers (20 miles) before ending the day in Piazza del Popolo.
The relay will cover 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.
In all, there will be 10,001 torch bearers.
The next stops on the torch relay are Viterbo on Sunday and Terni on Monday.
