At least 35 people, including 34 children and a female teacher, were killed and more than 50 injured when the roof of a private school collapsed in Peshawar’s Dir Colony area on Thursday, officials said.
Students were attending classes at Al-Khair Education Center on College Road when an upper-floor roof collapsed onto classrooms below, bringing down two levels of the building, according to rescue officials.
Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) received 33 bodies, while two others were taken to Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital. An emergency was declared at LRH, where some of the injured children were in critical condition.
Emergency services spokesperson Bilal Faizi said everyone trapped beneath the rubble had been pulled out and the debris cleared several hours after the collapse.
Samiullah, a parent who helped rescue three girls, told Pakistan’s daily Dawn that his son survived because he had stepped out of his classroom to drink water.
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said the school’s owner had been arrested and an investigation opened. He said additional construction had overloaded the roof.
“It was a weak building structure,” he said.
The owner, Mohammad Khan, blamed recent rains for weakening the roof, according to police, who said the investigation was continuing.