50 Injured in Stock Exchange Floor Collapse

A mezzanine floor inside the Jakarta Stock Exchange tower collapsed on Monday, injuring more than 50 people and forcing a chaotic evacuation. TV footage showed the lobby strewn with debris and people being helped out of the building while others lay on the grass or steps outside the tower, the AP reports. National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto says victims were taken to three hospitals. Most of the injured were college students from Palembang in Sumatra who were visiting the stock exchange as part of a study tour. Wasisto ruled out terrorism as a cause of the collapse. "There is no bomb element in the incident," he says.

A college student from Palembang says she felt a tremor just before the floor collapsed. "The structure suddenly collapsed, causing chaos," the student, identified as Ade, tells MetroTV. She says some of her friends were hit by debris and suffered head wounds and broken bones. The stock exchange remained open for its afternoon trading session and its general manager, Tito Sulistio, asserted no one had been killed. "I guarantee that there were no fatalities," he says. "I helped evacuate the victims to the park and as far as I know, the worst injuries are fractures." He says the exchange will pay the students' medical costs.

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