School roof collapses in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 35 people

The roof of a school in northwestern Pakistan has collapsed, killing at least 34 students and a teacher and injuring more than 45 others, authorities and rescue officials said.

The incident happened on Thursday at Al-Khair Education Centre, a private school in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mohammad Asim, spokesman for Lady Reading Hospital, where many victims were transported, said the fatalities include 12 girls and a female teacher. He added that some of the injured were in critical condition.

Most of the children killed or injured were between six and 12 years old, and the oldest was 14, Asim said. The hospital has declared an emergency as medical staff treat the wounded.

At least 45 children suffered injuries, ranging from minor wounds to severe trauma, said Arif Khattak, regional director of the Rescue Department.

“The school was very poorly built with just steel girders, mud bricks, and in some cases, wooden beams to hold the three-storey structure,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad.

Television footage showed rescuers clawing through debris with their bare hands and carrying bloodied children to waiting ambulances as residents crowded the narrow alley where the school stood.

A ‌higher-floor roof collapsed onto classrooms below, crumpling two storeys of the building, a rescue official said.

Hours after the collapse, rescue officials said everyone trapped under the rubble had been recovered. An emergency services spokesperson, Bilal Faizi, said that nearly 100 rescuers helped in the operation, including parents who assisted the crew.

He credited the rapid evacuation with saving at least 40 lives. More than a dozen children suffered minor injuries, he said.

Peshawar’s Police Chief Saeed Ahmed said that the owner of the school has been arrested. He said the building was structurally weak.

However, following 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 under way.

Al Jazeera’s Hyder said that the incident raised several concerns, as there had been similar cases in the past.

“In June, there was an incident in the city of Lahore, in the provincial capital of Punjab, which claimed 14 lives,” he said. “So there are questions as to why the government is not enforcing those building codes and rules”.

The provincial government said a committee had been formed to investigate the cause of the roof collapse of the three-storey building.

In Islamabad, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed sorrow 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.