Governor Fauzi Bowo said Tuesday the South Jakarta municipality would help pay the hospital costs of two people injured when a former school building in Melawai collapsed Monday.

"I have asked the South Jakarta mayor to take care of the victims and have them treated at the Pertamina Hospital (in South Jakarta)," he said at City Hall.

On Monday, a 20-meter side of a former building of state junior high SMP 56 collapsed at around 11.30 a.m., injuring two buskers resting inside.

South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Anwar said initial investigations revealed the building collapsed due to a weakened structure caused by scavengers.

"Scavengers took away iron rails that supported the building … causing it to collapse," Chairul told The Jakarta Post.

The two victims, Wawan Kurniawan, 21, and Palut Irwantoro, 26, who usually sing at Blok M Bus Station, were in the building together with Wawan's girlfriend Sri and Palut's wife Tuti, both of whom managed to escape injury.

It took about one and a half hours before they could be cleared from the wreckage and rushed to the hospital.

Both were transferred to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Fauzi said the school building had sat dormant for two years.

"We have put signs in front of the building prohibiting anyone from entering."

Mizarman, a community unit head in Melawai subdistrict, confirmed that scavengers and buskers often stayed in the building despite the prohibition.

"But we couldn't do anything as they kept coming."

SMP 56 came into the public spotlight in 2004 after several teachers with the support of parents refused to move to the new building on Jl. Jeruk Purut in protest of a 2000 land swap deal between the National Education Ministry and property developer PT Tata Disantara.

At the moment, the school building's status is in limbo.

Separately on Tuesday, two people were found dead when a building near the Garuda maintenance facility at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport caved in.

The bodies of Na'am, 58, and Leti, 36, both residents of Rawajati kampung in Tangerang regency, were sent to Tangerang General Hospital's morgue for examination.

Pardi, 36, who had been with the two victims but escaped uninjured, said the three of them had been looking for scrap metal to be sold.

"While Na'am and Leti were demolishing the concrete foundation of the building to pull an iron rail, the walls suddenly collapsed," he said.

Pardi said he was quite far from the two and therefore managed to escape and rushed to the airport police, who later excavated the victims.

"We will examine the incident," said chief detective at the police post, First Insp. Sunarto.