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Three dead as flooding knocks down walls of Jakarta school
Local police are combing through a school complex in Cilandak, South Jakarta in search of casualties, after the stage wall of a school collapsed due to flooding, killing three schoolchildren.
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Firefighters and officials from the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) comb along the perimeter of a collapsed wall separating a residential area and the state Pondok Labu Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTSN) 19 Islamic junior high school in Cilandak, South Jakarta, on Oct. 6, 2022. Three schoolchildren have been pronounced dead after a wall collapsed on them due to the sheer force of floodwaters that inundated the area Thursday afternoon. (Antara/Muhammad Iqbal)
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eavy flooding knocked down the walls of an Islamic junior high school in Cilandak, South Jakarta on Thursday, killing at least three pupils, local police reported, as heavy rains inundated the capital for a second time this week.
Cilandak District Police chief Commr. Multazam Lisendra told reporters that an outer perimeter wall of state Pondok Labu Madrassah Tsanawiyah (MTSN) 19 collapsed, resulting in a number of casualties.
“The wall collapsed due to the surge of floodwaters [...] and caused injuries and even death,” Multazam was quoted by tribunnews.com as saying.
According to the police’s initial report, three schoolchildren died in the incident. The precinct was still confirming data from a hospital in the area.
“We’re currently focused on rescue efforts and combing through the area for more victims. The flooding inundated the entire school complex, with water levels reaching as high as an adult’s chest,” he said.
Other local reports pegged the three victims as eighth graders from the school. Multazam later told a local TV outlet there could be more casualties yet accounted for.
Read also: Floods hit Greater Jakarta, warnings of more thunderstorms issued
The flooding was caused by heavy rainfall on Thursday afternoon and surged through the low-lying residential area, with classes still in progress as the wall collapsed.
Edison, one of the teachers at the school, explained that the perimeter wall collapsed at around 2 p.m. local time, at the height of the rainfall.
“There were two walls that collapsed. The first one was a perimeter wall that separated the school and local residences. It fell and knocked over the wall of a stage, under which there were children,” he told Kompas.com.
All three who died were boys. A fourth survived, he said.
Fears are brewing of a repeat of Tuesday’s heavy downpour, which also began in the afternoon and led to water inundating at least six major roads and 80 neighborhood units (RT) in the capital.
As of Thursday evening, authorities have closed off the toll roads connecting Jakarta to Bumi Serpong Damai in Tangerang due to one-meter-high flooding.
The Greater Jakarta agglomeration area houses around 30 million people and is regularly hit by floods in the rainy season. Outgoing Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said this week that solutions for the seasonal flooding require “scientific, not political” solutions.
