The death toll from a collapsed Indonesian school soared to 49 as authorities cleared nearly all of the rubble over the weekend.

Rescue teams recovered 24 more bodies from the wreckage in Sidoarjo Regency in East Java, bringing the number of casualties to 49 on Sunday evening.

Footage shows officers carrying orange body bags out of the ruins of the Al Khoziny Islamic boarding school as heavy equipment removes piles of concrete slabs.

The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said 80 per cent of the debris had been cleared on October 5, and search efforts are ongoing today.

Abdul Muhari, Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Centre, said: 'A total of 24 bodies have been found, including four human remains. All the bodies and body parts recovered have been evacuated to Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya for identification.'

He added that 14 were still missing while 104 people, including six in intensive care, survived.

The students were gathered for late afternoon prayers in a mosque on the ground floor when the upper floors of the four-storey building collapsed on September 30.

Hundreds of boys were buried under metal bars and concrete slabs.

Officials said the school's foundations may have been too weak to support the construction on its fourth floor.

The building has been under construction for the past nine to 10 months despite allegedly not having proper authorisation.

Sidoarjo Regent Subandi urged contractors to complete the necessary permits before construction, to prevent similar cases from happening.

He said: 'We would like to remind again that any construction without the necessary permits will be halted. We do not want this disaster to happen again.'

Indonesia struggles with lax construction standards, where weak enforcement of building codes and widespread use of substandard materials contribute to unsafe structures. It is also a common practice to leave buildings partially completed, with construction resuming only when budgets permit.