At least 34 children and a teacher were killed after the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Thursday.
The collapse took place at Al-Khair School in Dir Colony, a densely populated area of the city. Peshawar Capital City Police chief Mian Saeed said 30 students were inside classrooms on the upper floor when the roof gave way.
The school owner, who was running the institution as an education trust, has been arrested. Saeed said the three-storey building’s roof appeared to have been poorly constructed, and authorities would investigate possible violations of building regulations and fix responsibility for negligence.
Lady Reading Hospital spokesperson Muhammad Asim said 32 children and a teacher were brought to the facility dead. Two additional bodies were taken to Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital, taking the total number of children killed to 34.
Twenty injured children were also taken to Lady Reading Hospital. Most received first aid and were discharged, while three children with serious head injuries remained admitted. All those killed or injured were aged 13 or below.
The hospital declared an emergency to manage the casualties. Peshawar Deputy Commissioner Afaq Wazir said everyone trapped under the debris had been rescued and ordered an inquiry into the building collapse.
The provincial Education Secretary, Inayatullah Waseem, instructed the managing director of the Private Schools Regulatory Authority to submit a report on the incident by Friday.
Rescue work was complicated by the school’s location in narrow streets, according to the city police chief. Pakistan Army personnel joined other rescue and relief agencies in the operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed directed the Peshawar Chief Traffic Officer to create a green corridor so ambulances could move without interruption.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths and conveyed condolences to the families. Sharif also prayed for the injured children’s recovery and instructed authorities to ensure they received the best available medical care.
National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq expressed solidarity with the affected families and wished the injured a speedy recovery. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi called for the cause of the collapse to be established.
Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said he was deeply shocked by the deaths and expressed grief over the tragedy.
Previous building collapse incidents
Roof and building collapses are frequently reported in Pakistan, with poor safety practices and substandard construction materials often identified as contributing factors.
In July, three girls aged between 3 and 13 died when part of the outer wall of a government primary school in Sindh collapsed on them. That month, a child was killed and five people were injured after the roof of an under-construction private school in Lahore collapsed.
In June, 14 children died when the roof of a private tuition centre in Lahore collapsed. Less than two months earlier, four children were killed and 20 people injured after the roof of a classroom at a private school collapsed in Dera Ghazi Khan district.
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