Death toll from Indonesian school collapse rises to 14 as crews pull more bodies from rubble

SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from a school collapse in Indonesia rose to 14 on Friday after recovery crews pulled multiple bodies from beneath the rubble. Dozens of students remain unaccounted for and the death toll is expected to rise.

Rescuers initially searched by hand for survivors after the building caved in Monday. But with no more signs of life detected by Thursday they turned to heavy excavators equipped with jackhammers to help them progress more rapidly.

By Friday evening, they had found nine bodies, bringing the confirmed death toll to 14, with nearly 50 students still unaccounted for.

The structure fell on top of hundreds of people on Monday in a prayer hall at the century-old al Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo on the eastern side of Indonesia’s Java island.

Two of the bodies found Friday were in the prayer hall area and one was found closer to an exit as if he had been attempting to escape, according to Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, who goes by one name as is common in Indonesia.

The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between the ages of 12 and 19. Female students were praying in another part of the building and managed to escape, survivors said.

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

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

“I stopped praying and fled when I felt the floor shaking,” he recalled.

“Suddenly the building collapsed, the debris of the roof fell on my head, my face.”

Then the room went dark, but he heard someone shouting “this way, this way” and he followed the voice until he eventually found a narrow gap in the rubble.

“I just followed the light,” he said.

Many of the others who were injured but escaped or were rescued suffered serious head trauma and broken bones and are still being treated in the hospital.

Authorities have said the building was two stories, but two more levels were being added without a permit. Police said the old building’s foundation apparently was unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process.

School officials have not yet commented.

Crews worked in the hot sun Friday to break up and remove large slabs of concrete, with the smell of decomposing bodies as a grim reminder of what they would find underneath.

Suharyanto, of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told reporters at the scene on Friday that the recovery efforts were expected to be complete by the end of Saturday.

Rising reported from Bangkok.

A student walks pas a TV screen showing the search efforts for the missing people of a building that collapsed at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Women walk near the Islamic boarding school compound where a building collapsed, in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Rescuers gather outside the islamic boarding school where a building collapsed as the search for missing people is underway in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

A rescuer walks past a crane prepared for the search of missing people of a building that collapsed at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

A rescuer walks near the islamic boarding school where a building collapsed in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

Rescuers don their protective suits during the search for victims of a collapsed building at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

Rescuers spray disinfectant during the search for victims of a collapsed building at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

Rescuers disinfect the body bag containing the body of a victim of a collapsed building at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

Rescuers carry the body of a victim of a collapsed building at an Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

Rescuers carry the body of a victim after an Islamic boarding school collapsed in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)