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The death count from a catastrophic school building collapse in Indonesia escalated to 14 on Friday as emergency crews retrieved several bodies from under the rubble. Dozens of students are still missing and the number of casualties is expected to rise.

Rescue Efforts Intensify as Hope Fades

At first, rescuers searched by hand for those trapped alive after the building collapsed on Monday. However, after no more detections of survivors found by Thursday, they began using large machinery fitted with demolition tools to help them progress more rapidly.

Crews worked in the hot sun on Friday to demolish and remove large slabs of concrete, with the odor of the deceased a somber indication of what they would find below.

By the end of the day, they had recovered nine bodies, bringing the confirmed death toll to 14, with nearly 50 students remaining missing.

Details of the Structural Failure

The structure collapsed on top of hundreds 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) to the east of Jakarta.

The head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Suharyanto, informed reporters at the scene on Friday that the retrieval operation were expected to be finished by the end of Saturday.

The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, aged from 12 and 19 years of age. Female students were worshipping in a different section of the building and managed to escape, eyewitnesses said.

Survivor Account: Escape from the Debris

Thirteen-year-old Rizalul Qoib, one of 104 survivors, returned to the scene on Friday to look at what was remaining of his school, and said he was lucky to have escaped with only a minor gash to his head.

He said, like the others, he had been praying when he heard something similar to the noise of falling rocks, which got louder and louder.

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

Then the room became pitch black, but he heard someone yelling, “this way, this way” and he followed the sound until he finally found a small opening in the debris.

“I just followed the light,” Qoib said.

Many of the other individuals who were injured but got out or were rescued experienced serious head trauma and fractures, and are continuing to receive care in the hospital.

Reason of the Collapse

Officials have said the structure was two floors, but an additional two stories were under construction without a permit. Law enforcement said the existing structure's base apparently was unable to support the additional weight and collapsed during the concrete work.

School officials have not yet commented.