PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The roof of a private school collapsed Thursday in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar, killing at least 34 children and a teacher and injuring more than 50 others in the deadliest incident of its kind in the country, authorities and a hospital official said.
The children killed or injured at Al-Khair school were aged between 6 and 12, while the oldest was 14, Lady Reading Hospital spokesman Mohammad Asim said. Some of the injured are in critical condition, he said. The hospital declared a state of emergency while medical staff treated the injured.
Hours after the collapse in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, emergency services spokesman Bilal Faizi said all those trapped under the rubble had been evacuated and teams had cleared the debris.
He told The Associated Press that the roofs of two classrooms collapsed when second- and third-grade children were there with their teachers. Faizi said ambulances and disaster management personnel arrived from a nearby facility within five minutes of their alert.
Nearly 100 rescuers eventually joined the operation, he said. Panicked and grieving, the parents were trying to help when crews arrived, Faizi said. He credited the rapid evacuation with saving at least 40 lives. More than a dozen children were lightly injured, he said.
Building collapses are common in Pakistanwhere construction standards are often poorly applied. Many structures are built with substandard materials and safety regulations are often ignored to reduce costs.
A teacher said it was like the sky had fallen
As grief gripped the neighborhood, announcements played over mosque loudspeakers urged residents to attend mass funeral prayers for those killed at the nearby Rehman Baba cemetery.
Residents said most of the children killed lived in the Dir Colony neighborhood where the school is located, making it unclear which grieving family to visit first to offer condolences.
Ambulances were seen leaving the hospital to take the children’s bodies home as mourners cried and wailed.
Mahwish Zaman, an injured teacher, speaking from a hospital bed, said the school had about 1,200 students enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. She told the Associated Press that she was in her classroom when the roof collapsed and it felt like the sky had fallen. She regained consciousness in the hospital.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi expressed sadness over the collapse and sought a report from relevant authorities on the cause. He called on authorities to provide the best possible medical care to the injured children.
According to witnesses, residents were among the first to reach the school in a congested area of central Peshawar. Rescuers arrived a few minutes after being alerted, according to witnesses at the scene.
A resident, Samiullah Khan, said he rushed to the school after learning of the collapse and helped rescue three girls. Khan said her son, who attends the school, survived because he went out of class to get a drink of water.
Another resident, Mohammad Khan, said rescuers carefully cleared debris, trying to reach children and staff fearing they might be trapped under the collapsed roof. Outside the school and at Lady Reading Public Hospital, anguished parents searched for information about their children, unsure if they had survived.
Officials offer condolences, promise investigations
Peshawar police chief Saeed Ahmed said the school owner had been arrested. He said the building was structurally weak. However, after his arrest, the owner, Mohammad Khan, blamed this week’s rains for weakening one of the roofs, according to police, who said the investigation was still ongoing.
The provincial government said a committee has been formed to investigate the cause of the three-storey building’s roof collapse.
Provincial government spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour praised rescuers for their quick response. She said the government was using all available resources to bring those trapped under the rubble to safety.
In Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sadness over the deaths and offered condolences to the bereaved families in separate statements.
“The entire nation shares the grief of the affected families in this hour of sorrow,” Zardari said.
He also called for a thorough investigation into the collapse and stressed the need to ensure school buildings meet safety standards to avoid similar tragedies.
In July, a roof collapsed in a tutoring center under construction in Lahore, killing four schoolchildren.
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Munir Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar in Peshawar and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this story.
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