Scores injured after floor collapses at Indonesian stock exchange

Police say collapse of Jakarta building’s mezzanine level, which injured at least 75 people, was an accident

At least 75 people have been injured after a mezzanine floor at Indonesia’s stock exchange building collapsed.

CCTV footage showed a group of 40 visiting students on a balcony section plunge as the floor gave way with a cascade of glass, metal and other material crashing on to the ground floor where several others were walking.

A Jakarta police spokesman said the collapse was an accident and not the result of an explosion.

National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto told AFP 75 people had been injured. There were no reports of deaths so far.

Television images showed chaotic scenes as victims were taken to hospital or lay on the ground outside the tower complex in the centre of the city’s business district.

“I saw many people bleeding,” student Rizki Noviandi, who was taking part in a competition at the exchange building, told Metro TV.

“So many people were carried out of the building and were left on the grass outside … until the ambulances arrived.”

Hundreds of employees were evacuated from the complex, which was bombed by Islamist militants in 2000. At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured by a car bomb in that attack.

“Our search and rescue teams, the police, doctors, the firefighters are all still working,” Wasisto said. “They are cleaning the debris and also searching for other possible injuries.”

Most of the injuries were to arms and legs, including broken bones, a spokesman for one local hospital said.

Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono added: “The accident happened at the first floor … It’s a floor where many employees are passing by.”

The collapse took place in one of the complex’s two towers.

“There was a sound, like something had fallen off a building structure, for about 20 seconds. Everyone was panicking and people were immediately being evacuated,” Amailia Putri Hasniawati, a journalist based at the exchange, told AFP.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident at the tower in Sudirman district, which was built in 1995.

“Material degradation could be the cause,” Iswandi Imran, a construction expert, told local TV. “It could be corrosion or anything which slowly degrades the strength of the structure so it cannot take the weight any longer. But all that has to be investigated.”