Indonesia Stock Exchange: Student describes chaos after walkway crumbled without warning
Updated
Video: WARNING: Distressing content - Footage shows Jakarta stock exchange floor collapse
(ABC News)
One of the university students injured in a dramatic accident in the heart of Jakarta's financial district remembers screaming for help as she lay injured on the floor of the Indonesia Stock Exchange building.
Firda Putri, 20, was part of a university study tour to the stock exchange on Monday.
CCTV footage shows the entire group falling several metres to the ground when the suspended walkway collapsed with 72 people were hurt in the incident.
"We were on the corridor on the second floor, but when my lecturer asked us to go back, suddenly it collapsed," she told the ABC from her bed at Jakarta's Mintohardjo Naval Hospital.
"I fell down to the lobby. I couldn't remember much. My legs were weak, my hands were weak.
"I don't remember when I fell, what I remember was that my leg was hit by concrete.
"I went out by myself, then my friend carried me.
"I screamed for help, some staff tried to help."
Harry Setiawan was the shift supervisor at the Salad Stop restaurant in the building's lobby.
"There was a loud thundery noise, and dust everywhere getting into our store," he said.
"I thought it was an earthquake. It sounded like something fell, so I thought it was a quake.
"I was panicking — I tried to secure our stuff including the safebox, turn off the stove, electricity. I told everyone to get out, to evacuate."
The stock exchange building was attacked with a car bomb in 2000, but police quickly ruled out terrorism in relation to Monday's collapse.
They say they will obtain the building's blueprints and speak to the firm that built the walkway.
Construction standards in Indonesia are not as strong as in Australia — but the failure of part of a modern building like the stock exchange is extremely rare.
Photos of the aftermath of the accident show the steel cables that were holding the walkway still hanging from the building's roof.
It appears the walkway's suspended supports failed at the point where the cables were anchored to the walkway.
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, indonesia
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